District Trinamul leaders in Cooch Behar produced an RTI application and its reply to accuse the BJP of making “another hollow promise” over setting up an infantry regiment in the Indian Army after the name of the Narayani Sena, the armed troops of the erstwhile princely state of Cooch Behar.

The move, political observers said, indicates that Mamata Banerjee’s party intends to stoke sentiments of Cooch Behar residents by raising an emotive issue and a longstanding demand of the region.

Partha Pratim Roy, the district Trinamul chief, said here on Thursday that Udayranjan Roy Prodhani, an assistant professor of Dhubri Law College in neighbouring Assam and a resident of Gauripur, had written to the Union defence ministry last year asking whether it had any plans to raise such a regiment.

“The Union defence ministry has replied, clearly saying that there is no such plan with them. Here in Cooch Behar, the local BJP MP has time and again promised that the Centre will come up with such a regiment. It is evident now that the BJP makes empty promises to garner votes,” said Roy.

The issue, sources said, was raised time and again. Back in 2016, S.S. Ahluwalia, who was Darjeeling MP then, had written to then Union home minister Rajnath Singh, requesting him see that such a regiment is raised in the Indian Army.

Last year, when BJP president J.P. Nadda was in Bengal, Nisith Pramanik, the Cooch Behar MP, had requested him to look into the issue, keeping in mind the Rajbanshi vote bank of north Bengal.

Though the Centre has not made any decision on the issue, the Mamata Banerjee government in the state went ahead and announced creation of a Narayani battalion in the state police force last month.

Mamata, who also announced that headquarters of this battalion will be in Mekhliganj of Cooch Behar, has also laid its foundation stone.

“The decision to form such a battalion in the state police will obviously help Trinamul draw support of the Rajbanshi community, a considerable part of whom had voted for BJP at the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Now this RTI reply is yet another arsenal that the ruling party of the state is likely to use against BJP when it goes to campaign in Rajbanshi-dominated belts. It will be interesting to see how BJP handles the situation,” said a political observer. Calls by this paper to MP Pramanik went unanswered.

Sanjoy Chakraborty, a general secretary of Cooch Behar district BJP, put on a brave face. “We also want the regiment and our MP has time and again raised the issue in Parliament and different quarters. Also, we are not sure about the documents that Trinamul leaders have shown today. They are simply trying to use people’s sentiments ahead of the polls,” he said.