Amid demands for a separate State carved out of West Bengal by some BJP leaders, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on June 7 asserted that she is ready to shed her own blood, if need be, to thwart such attempts to divide the State.
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Lashing out at the saffron camp "for trying to fan separatism" in the State, ahead of the general election in 2024, the TMC supremo maintained that all communities in north Bengal had been living in harmony for decades.
"With elections approaching, the BJP is fanning the demands of separate Statehood... sometimes seeking Gorkhaland and at other times a separate State of North Bengal. I am ready to give my blood but will never allow division of the State," Ms. Banerjee said, addressing a party meeting in Alipurduar.
In an apparent reference to a purported video by Kamtapur Liberation Organisation leader Jeevan Singha, threatening Ms. Banerjee with a "bloodbath" if she opposed the demand for a separate Kamtapur, the fiesty TMC boss said such threats do not intimidate her. "Some people are threatening me, I don't care. I am not afraid of such threats," she added.