The saffron camp's decision to field Nagendra Roy aka Ananta Maharaj, as its candidate for the July 24 Rajya Sabha polls has "angered" the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP.

Ananta heads a faction of the Greater Cooch Behar Peoples’ Association and is a proponent of the Kamtapur state for Rajbanshis.

“We have informed the party (the BJP) about our discontent with the nomination of Ananta Maharaj. How can a self-styled king be a lawmaker in a democracy?” an RSS leader, overseeing the organisation’s activities in south Bengal, said.

The leader added that roping in someone who demands a state carved from Bengal should not be the BJP’s strategy to woo the Rajbanshis.

The RSS had suggested names of their choice for the Upper House including former Bengal BJP chief and national secretary Rahul Sinha and chief spokesperson for the state unit Samik Bhattacharya. BJP leaders in Bengal added other names, including that of actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty, to the list before forwarding it to the central leadership. Ananta’s name did not feature in either list, insiders said.

"Neither the party here nor the Sangh had thought that a self-proclaimed king would become the BJP's Rajya Sabha nominee. What is his connection with the party? The RSS strictly feels the candidate should have been a political person,” the RSS source said.

Multiple BJP old-timers said Ananta's selection again exposed the party's hypocrisy on the division of Bengal.

Ananta, who reached Calcutta on Wednesday from Cooch Behar with Union minister of state and BJP's Cooch Behar MP Nisith Pramanik, filed his nomination papers on Thursday in the presence of state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar, leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and others.

Majumdar tried to clarify Ananta’s statehood demand to newspersons.

"Such demands have been raised because of the lack of development in north Bengal. So far, the development carried out in this state is Calcutta-centric and some people feel deprived. If extensive development is done across the state in a balanced manner, we believe the demand will no longer be there,” he said.

On if the BJP supported the Kamtapur demand, he dodged a direct reply. “We want Bengal to be in the same form that Syama Prasad Mookerjee wanted it to be,” he said.

Ananta told journalists he would speak on Kamtapur “when the time comes”, adding that he would work for the people of Bengal once elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Cooch Behar Trinamul spokesperson Parthapratim Roy remarked "how conveniently" the BJP changed its stand on the statehood issue for political gain.