Cracks have started to appear in West Bengal BJP over the demand by a section of leaders to carve out a separate state out of North Bengal.
The situation has become such that a section of party leaders indicate that those BJP leaders including State president Dilip Ghosh who are supporting the demand are ignorant of Bengal’s culture.
BJP MP Locket Chatterjee at a recent party program took a veiled dig at Union Minister John Barla and Ghosh and said that Bengal has a different culture and will never be divided.
"Rabindranath Tagore started the Raksha Bandhan festival to protest against the division of Bengal by the British. I don’t know what John Barla and Dilip Ghosh have said but Bengal has a different culture and it will never be divided," said Chatterjee.
Her comments come days after Ghosh suddenly changed his stand over the issue and indicated his support for it.
Ghosh had argued that when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee signed the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) agreement, no questions were raised but when BJP is raising a demand a lot of hue and cry is being made.
"When Mamata Banerjee signed the GTA agreement keeping the demand for the separate State of Gorkhaland alive no one said anything. But whenever BJP raises a demand we are being dubbed as separatists,” said Ghosh.
However, he later made a u-turn saying "there is no question of the creation of a separate state whether its Gorkhaland or North Bengal."
Taking a dig at the BJP over the difference of opinion in the party, Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, "There is always a difference of opinion in the BJP. They know that the people of Bengal will oppose any attempt to divide the state but are raising such demands to create trouble."
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