'Things are sensitive here': BJP's Darjeeling MP raises alarm on demography change in 'Chicken's neck' area, blames TMC

BJP's Darjeeling MP Raju Bista on Sunday hit out at the TMC government of Mamata Banerjee, saying her administration was facilitating infiltration and changing the demography in the Chopra assembly area. The Chopra assembly is in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency. "Things are very sensitive here," Bista said while speaking to news agency ANI. 

"It's in the Chicken Neck Belt area, secondly, it borders Bangladesh, thirdly all illegal things like infiltration, and smuggling happen here and its demography has changed very rapidly," the BJP MP said. Bista has been fielded again from Darjeeling.  

The BJP leader said that the central government should pay special attention to it. "The government of West Bengal is changing the demography of Chopra and other places for vote bank politics. What happened to me, a few locals along with some outsiders from the TMC tried to stop me by showing black flags and raising 'go back' slogans, but I am a Gorkha, we faced them and did our campaign," he said. 

The Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency has 7 assembly segments. In 2021, the BJP won five seats while 1 seat went to the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha.

The TMC bagged the Chopra seat, where Hamidul Rahman defeated BJP's Md Shahin Akhtar by nearly 65,000 votes. 

Meanwhile, a total of 100 more companies of central forces are likely to arrive in West Bengal next week, with the Election Commission planning to deploy 277 companies in the first phase of polling in the state on April 19. 

Three constituencies in north Bengal – Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, and Alipurduars – will go to polls in the first phase. 

Darjeeling, Raiganj, and Balurghat Lok Sabha seats will go to polls in the second phase. 

(With inputs from PTI)