Award For BJP MP, Language Push: Trinamool's Rajbanshi Outreach Before Polls

The whispers grew louder in the media enclosure, because a sitting BJP MP isn't usually in attendance at a West Bengal government programme. Then, Rajya Sabha MP Anant Maharaj was ushered on stage by Bengal I&B minister Indranil Sen and honoured with the Banga Bibhushan, a state civilian award, by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the event in Kolkata, organised to mark International Mother Language Day on Saturday.

Reciting a poem written during his childhood, Maharaj thanked the Chief Minister for the state honour and then criticised his own party, saying the BJP has done nothing for Cooch Behar. "I am very grateful for this honour. It's International Mother Language Day, and I have been given this award for the Rajbanshi Community," he added, leaving the event 15 minutes later to catch a flight.

Earlier, on Thursday, the Chief Secretary submitted a formal proposal to the Centre to include the Rajbanshi and Kurmali languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution, which recognises official languages. This move was also seen as an outreach to the Rajbanshi community, ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections.

The Rajbanshis are a scheduled caste community concentrated in North Bengal, especially in districts like Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Malda, and Murshidabad.

In North Bengal, they constitute 30% of the electorate and are seen as an important swing community in the region, where neither the ruling Trinamool Congress nor the BJP can afford to lose ground to keep seat count intact.

The Rajbanshis hold sway in over 15 Assembly seats, where how they vote can affect results. Of the seven seats in Cooch Behar district, the TMC won the Sitai and Mekliganj Assembly seats, while the BJP won the five seats of Dinhata, Sitalkuchi, Mathabhanga, Cooch Behar Uttar and Dakshin.