GUWAHATI: Union home minister Amit Shah arrived here on late on Wednesday evening and after a night stopover, he will be travelling to Chirang district in western Assam on Thursday for a luncheon meeting with Koch-Rajbongshi proclaimed ‘maharaja’, who controls majority of the community voters in seven districts of north Bengal and is seeking reorganization of West Bengal to carve out a separate state.
Shah will skip public appearance in Assam from Bongaigaon and will head to Cooch Behar town in the neighbouring state where he will first visit Madan Mohan temple that was built by 19th century Koch-Rajbongshi king Nripendra Narayan before launching the ‘poribartan yatra’. He will fly to Kolkata and then take a chopper ride to Thakurbari to address the Motua community at a public rally.
The man that Shah will fly to meet is Ananta Rai, who now appears to be the Assam connection to BJP’s mission West Bengal. Assam BJP has termed Shah’s visit to Rai’s house as “purely private”.
Rai, a resident of Satiborgaon village in Chirang, heads the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association. He said, “We were not part of India and we were merged with India after Independence but inclusion of Cooch Behar district in West Bengal was a violation of treaty signed in 1949 between the government of India and Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan. GCPA is demanding reorganization of West Bengal and creation of a separate state or Union Territory for our people,” Rai said.
“When I met Amit Shah in Delhi, he proposed to visit my home and family. He will be arriving here tomorrow and will have lunch with us. There will be some discussion on addressing the problems of our people in north Bengal and Assam as well,” Rai said.
The Koch-Rajbonghi community in Assam is waiting for the Centre to grant them the ST status, along with five other indigenous communities of the state, for long. BJP has been promising to give these six communities the tribal status since 2014.
In 2019, Rai, had shared the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then home minister Rajnath Singh at an election rally. While Rai heads the major faction of the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association, the other smaller faction is led Bangshibadan Burman, is seen closer to Mamata Banerjee.