Statehood demand: KPP threatens BJP boycott as deadline expires

Jalpaiguri: With the November deadline for action on the Kamtapur statehood and Kamtapuri language-recognition demands set to expire, the Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP) has warned that the BJP will not receive “a single vote” from the Kamtapuri community in the upcoming Assembly elections. The party has convened a meeting of its central committee in the first week of December to take a decisive stand.

After the BJP’s victory in the Bihar Assembly elections, the KPP had set a deadline, urging the Centre to initiate concrete measures toward the creation of a separate Kamtapur state and the inclusion of the Kamtapuri language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution by November. The party alleges that as the month comes to a close, no visible steps have been taken by the Centre.

“Kamtapuri people have supported the BJP since 2009. Every election season, the BJP promises statehood and language recognition.

Trusting those assurances, our community kept voting for them. But now our backs are against the wall. No action has been taken within the promised timeframe, leaving us with no option but to boycott the BJP in North Bengal,” said KPP Central Committee publicity secretary Santosh Kumar Barman.

He added that if the demands remain unaddressed, the party will stage protests and sit-in demonstrations outside the houses of BJP MPs and MLAs.

“If the BJP speaks of North Bengal’s deprivation, why do its MPs not raise the issues of statehood and language in Parliament?” he questioned.

KPP’s Jalpaiguri district president, Adhir Barman, said: “Only two days are left before the deadline ends, yet no initiative has come from the Centre or the BJP. Our December meeting will finalise that not a single vote will go to the BJP.”

Responding to the allegations, BJP’s organisational convenor for the five districts of North Bengal, Bapi Goswami, said: “The Kamtapur people have supported us over the years because of the state’s neglect toward them.

Matters related to the language and the statehood proposal are under consideration of the central leadership.”