To divide Bengal is to divide country: Mamata Banerjee slams BJP over UT demands

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee remarked on Friday that any proposal to divide the state would amount to dividing the country. The chief minister made the comments a day after Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey had proposed in Parliament that certain parts of West Bengal and Jharkhand be made Union Territories to deal with undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh who have allegedly settled in the regions.

On Wednesday, West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to incorporate northern parts of the state into the North East because the two regions have “many similarities”. Majumdar, who is also Union minister of state, said that the prime minister will decide on the proposal.

On Friday, Banerjee objected to both statements and said: “When Parliament is in process, a minister is making statements to divide Bengal. And now from different sources, different party members are giving different types of statements – to divide Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, and Bengal. We strongly condemn this attitude. To divide Bengal means to divide our country India.”