Battle in West Bengal

May 22, 2014 01:52 am | Updated May 24, 2016 10:55 am IST

The only reason behind the BJP’s progressive growth in West Bengal (Editorial, “ >Riding a tiger in Bengal, ” May 21) is the fast- changing demography in the State where a migrant population from northern and western India is increasingly beginning to call the shots.

The BJP won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat because of the large Hindi-speaking population. In Darjeeling, it was not on account of Nepali votes alone. Rather, the dominant migrant communities of Siliguri and the North Bengal plains helped a great deal. The Trinamool might have won the Kolkata South seat, but in the Bhowanipore Assembly segment where Mamata Banerjee resides, the BJP emerged the leading party because of a large population of Gujaratis. No secular Bengali will ever vote for the BJP as he is fiercely possessive of West Bengal’s unity.

Kajal Chatterjee,

Kolkata

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.