Battle in West Bengal

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