Demand for dividing Bengal part of larger conspiracy of BJP, says Adhir Chowdhury

KOLKATA: The Congress' West Bengal unit on Tuesday accused the BJP of conspiring to divide the state claiming that it is a part of a larger gameplan of the RSS, the ideological parent body of the saffron party.

BJP MP John Barla recently sought a separate union territory comprising north Bengal districts, another Lok Sabha member of the party, Saumitra Khan, raised a similar demand for the Junglemahal region in the southern part of the state.

The Bengal BJP leadership, however, said it is not in favour of the state's division.

"It is known that the RSS is behind every such move by the BJP. (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi is influenced by the RSS and it has a longstanding plot to carve out Muslim- dominated regions in different states," state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told reporters.

"They have that plan for Uttar Pradesh, they have that plan for West Bengal," he said without elaborating.

Chowdhury, also the leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, claimed that the BJP would have executed "this heinous plan" after a certain period had it formed the government in West Bengal.

"But after the defeat in the assembly polls, they are desperate and impatient to fulfil their agenda immediately.

Bengalis must stand united and protest across the state against this diabolical gameplan of the BJP," he said.

Chowdhury claimed that Narendra Modi is scared that he is losing popularity and is desperate to retain power in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

"That is why they (BJP) are taking resort to such conspiracies. They want to disturb the Trinamool Congress regime as it won with a huge majority in the assembly polls," he said about BJP.