KOLKATA: BJP national president JP Nadda, who was on his two-day visit to West Bengal, issued an instruction to party’s state functionaries on Thursday that no one would raise the demand of separate statehood in Bengal as the party didn’t endorse it.
“There have been examples of many of our leaders raising demand for separate statehood in the recent past. Do not raise such a demand from now. The BJP doesn’t endorse such demand,” Nadda reportedly told a gathering of mandal presidents.
Nadda’s instruction comes at a time when a section of BJP’s elected representatives have been raising the demands for statehood to different regions of the state. BJP’s Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan had last month demanded separate statehood for tribal-dominated Junglemahal. Similarly, John Barla, the MP from Alipurduar, demanded statehood for Dooars and Hills in north Bengal.
Meanwhile, the saffron party’s Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma on Thursday stoked the demand for bifurcation of West Bengal and said he will take up the matter with Nadda.. The Gorkha legislator from Darjeeling had last year demanded the separation of the hilly region from the state.