Six days ago, News18 had reported that Ananta Rai ‘Maharaj’ may well be on his way to become BJP’s sole Rajya Sabha candidate from West Bengal where Trinamool Congress (TMC) has swept the recently concluded Panchayat Elections. Then came a surprise meeting on Tuesday between MoS Home Nisith Pramanik, and Rai, who is identified as ‘Maharaj’. The next day, BJP officially declared Rai as its only Rajya Sabha candidate. What does it mean, politically?
THE RAJBANSHI FACTOR
Originally known as Ananta Rai, he announced himself as a ‘Maharaj’ of the Rajbanshi community — a scheduled caste group that forms a little above 18% of the SC population of the state, according to the 2001 census. In North Bengal, this community is mostly found in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, and North and South Dinajpur. They live in Assam, Bihar and Meghalaya as well.
Rajbanshis are an important voting block that has influence in around 20 assembly seats in four districts. That’s why, from Union Minister Amit Shah to TMC top ministers visit him.
Technically, the word Rajbanshi suggests people who hail from ‘Raj Bongsho’ or the royal family. It is rather interesting that a community that believes they are royal has also suffered untouchability.
Believed to be connected to the Koch kingdom of present-day Cooch Behar, Rajbanshis and their leader Ananta Maharaj believe that they have been denied their due.
SEPARATE NORTH BENGAL MOVEMENT
The Rajbanshis have been seeking territorial autonomy for quite some time and as their leader, Ananta Maharaj has been espousing their cause of a separate North Bengal — an issue that doesn’t sync with the average Bengali psyche who is against division of the state.
Ananta Maharaj is the supreme leader of the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association. Often considered the voice of North Bengal — a section of the state where the BJP has done relatively well both in the 2019 Lok Sabha as well as the 2021 assembly elections — he has been championing the cause to declare North Bengal as a Union Territory to which many BJP MPs have lent support.
Though BJP has officially refused to associate itself with his cause, it has not taken disciplinary action against any leaders including Union ministers who have publicly lent their weight to his “cause”.
In 2021, when John Barla was inducted into the Union Council of Ministers, he told the media in no uncertain terms, “I will take this matter (the demand for North Bengal to be declared a Union Territory) up with Delhi (leadership)”. Even just before the BJP announced his name, it was Nisith Pramanik, an MP from Cooch Behar, who went to meet Maharaj.
BJP and Maharaj Relationship
Aware of his clout, Maharaj shares space with Amit Shah on one hand, and receives gift from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on ‘Bhai Dooj’, on the other. Though TMC tried to keep him in good humour, they were categorical about one thing — a division of West Bengal as it is today is unacceptable and non-negotiable.
On the contrary, BJP has been sympathetic to the Gorkha movement, which seeks separate Gorkhaland including Darjeeling. BJP’s main political base in Bengal has also been in the north. No wonder two out of four ministers from Bengal are from the north with one from Cooch Behar itself.
Between the BJP and Ananta Maharaj — it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. In 2019, BJP won 18 seats in the state with the majority from North Bengal. If BJP needs to come anywhere closer to that figure, it needs to do well in North Bengal. And who better than a person who has absolute command over the Rajbanshi community? But it also means Ananta Maharaj would want a renewed push for North Bengal in return.
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