Mamata attacks Modi for 'supporting' Darjeeling, Cooch Behar statehood

Cooch Behar (West Bengal), May 3: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sharing the stage with those who want the separation of Darjeeling and Cooch Behar from the state.

"Some people came to me and say 'I want a separate state'. I tell them nothing doing. Cooch Behar will remain a part of Bengal. BJP is divisive. In a rally, on prime minister's one side was the person who wants to break up Darjeeling and on the other side there was the person who wants to break up Cooch Behar," Banerjee said at an election rally in Cooch Behar.

Cooch Behar and East Midnapore go to polls on Thursday in the final phase of the Bengal assembly polls.

"We will not allow Cooch Behar and Darjeeling to be divided," she asserted.

In April, Modi's election rally in Siliguri saw the support of a faction of Greater Cooch Behar People's Association who have been demanding separate statehood. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which is spearheading the Gorkhaland movement in Darjeeling district, is also a BJP ally.

The Trinamool Congress supremo also asserted her party supported the historic enclave swap between India and Bangladesh last year.

"After meeting the residents of chhitmahal (enclaves), we supported the exchange of enclaves," she said.

IANS