300 TMC women activists hit Siliguri streets against 'BJP's bid to divide Bengal'

Image Credit: ANI; Representational Image

Kolkata: Women activists of the Trinamool Congress on Thursday hit the streets of Siliguri to protest "the BJP's attempt to divide West Bengal". Led by Minister of State for Finance (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya, around 300 women activists staged a protest rally from the TMC office in Sevoke More to Hashmi Chowk in the northern West Bengal city, raising slogans and blowing conch shells. Bhattacharya, while accusing the saffron party of plotting to divide West Bengal, told reporters, "Those trying to divide the state will never succeed. They only want to hog the limelight and serve their political purpose." "Blowing conch shells is an intrinsic tradition of Bengal. The 'Lakshmis of households' have hit the streets to raise their voice against the conspiracy to divide the state," she said.

Union ministers and BJP MPs from northern West Bengal, John Barla and Nisith Pramanik, had in the past said that successive governments in the state had not done much to assuage the grievances of the people of the region and the sentiments of the common people should not be ignored. They, however, had not directly endorsed the separation of the region from the state. BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh had earlier said that the party does not support the division of the state but alleged neglect of sons-of-soil in certain parts of north and south Bengal cannot be ignored.