Following a meeting with Union Minister of State for Housing Nisith Pramanik, Ananta Rai ‘Maharaj’, who has been pushing for the creation of a breakaway state of ‘Greater Cooch Behar’ within West Bengal, announced on Tuesday that the BJP had promised him a seat in the Rajya Sabha.
The Greater Cooch Behar Peoples’ Association (GCPA) leader and Pramanik, the BJP member of parliament for Cooch Behar, met at the latter’s home and spoke for an hour.
‘I have been given an offer (for Rajya Sabha). They said they were considering my name. I am not opposed to it. Let’s see what happens,’ Ananta told reporters with Pramanik by his side.
If individuals like him entered Parliament, according to Pramanik, the entire state would profit.
‘We want someone from Cooch Behar like Ananta Maharaj, who works for the development of the people, to be sent to the Upper House. But I cannot comment until the list is out as nothing is final. Let the names be announced officially,’ he said.
On July 24, elections will be held for six Rajya Sabha seats in West Bengal, in addition to a byelection in a different seat inside the state.
One of the GCPA factions led by Ananta Rai ‘Maharaj’ has been pushing for the creation of a breakaway state in northern West Bengal.
North Bengal, with its eight districts, is economically significant for the state due to the tea, lumber, and tourism sectors. This includes the scenic Darjeeling. Since the early 1980s, numerous violent statehood movements have taken place in the region, which borders Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. These movements have been led by diverse ethnic groups, including the Gorkhas, Rajbanshis, Kochs, and Kamatapuris.
Many local BJP MPs and MLAs have argued in favour of using these eight districts to create a new state or union territory. The state BJP, though, has insisted that it opposes such demands.
The Trinamool Congress revealed its nominees for six Rajya Sabha seats on Monday.
Derek O’Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, and Dola Sen were among them. While Ray, who was first elected to the Upper House of Parliament in 2012, is the deputy chief whip, O’Brien, a member of parliament since 2011, is the TMC’s leader in Rajya Sabha. Senior union activist Sen was elected to the House of Representatives in 2017.
Samirul Islam, the president of the Bangla Sanskriti Mancha, Prakash Chik Baraik, the leader of the TMC’s Alipurduar district, and Saket Gokhale, an RTI activist and TMC spokesperson, were the newbies on the list.
Due to the resignation of former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro as a TMC MP in April, the byelection will be contested in a different seat.
In the 294-member assembly, the TMC has 216 MLAs and is supported by five BJP MLAs who switched parties but have not yet resigned from the House. In the assembly, the BJP is represented by 70 members.
TMC will win six of these seven Rajya Sabha seats, while the BJP will win one, according to the results of the assembly.
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