Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP) Mounts Campaign Against BJP in North Bengal

Prior to the Lok Sabha elections, the Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP), a regional political movement in north Bengal with significant influence among the Rajbanshis, has made the decision to begin an anti-BJP campaign due to "unmet Rajbanshi demands".

We have scheduled a variety of political events to express our disapproval of the BJP leaders' hollow promises. For the Kamtapuri (Rajbanshi) people of Assam and north Bengal, they have done nothing. According to KPP general secretary Uttam Kumar Roy, "Our party will take the task to apprise people as to how the BJP duped us," he said here on Saturday.


He announced that the party would hold a rally in the town of Cooch Behar on February 29. Once again, the KPP is organizing a sit-in protest against the BJP at Bhetaguri, which is located in the district's Dinhata subdivision, on March 6.

Bhetaguri is home to Nisith Pramanik, the Cooch Behar BJP MP and junior minister in the Union home ministry.

The BJP faces a new challenge after a regional party with a base of support among Rajbanshis made such a declaration. The saffron party wants to hold onto all seven (out of eight) Lok Sabha seats that it won in 2019. It is targeting the seats in north Bengal.

The KPP leaders said that they would step up their campaign against the BJP as soon as the results of the polls are known.

"We go out in campaign against the party wherever the BJP will field a candidate in the Lok Sabha seats of north Bengal and adjacent areas of lower Assam," Roy said.

He said that a number of high-ranking BJP officials, such as Union Home Minister Amit Shah, had given them assurances that the federal government will establish a Narayani regiment to serve the royal forces of the former Cooch Behar state in the CAPF.

"We were informed that a statue of Panchanan Barma, a local icon, would be installed by the Center and that it would recognize our language. "Nothing happened," a KPP official said.

Unlike the Center, the state's Mamata Banerjee administration complied with these requests.

In the district of Mekhliganj, the state established a Narayani unit of the state armed police, recognized the Rajbanshi language, and erected a monument of Panchanan Barma.

According to political commentators, Trinamul would gain from the KPP's decision.

"The BJP divided votes in 2019 by inflaming the resentment of Rajbanshis with protracted promises. However, it would be fascinating to watch how the BJP handles the issue now that regional political groups are beginning to voice concerns, an analyst said.

After learning of the KPP's stance, BJP leaders in Cooch Behar pulled the MP card.

"The fact that the BJP has sent Nagen Roy (Ananta Maharaj) to the Rajya Sabha as an MP shows that the party is serious about the Rajbanshis and wants to address their concerns. We think people should be patient," BJP district general secretary Biraj Bose said.

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