The purported reiteration of the demand for a separate state by the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) has prompted the Trinamul Congress to prove its support base during Tuesday’s public meeting to be addressed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Alipurduar.

The public meeting will be held at the Parade Ground of Alipurduar town.

Trinamul leader and minister Aroop Biswas visited the meeting venue on Monday afternoon. “It will be a historical meeting. Thousands of supporters will gather and vouch in unison for the extensive development works which have been carried out by Mamata Banerjee in Alipurduar district and in north Bengal as a whole. We believe our party supremo will pass certain instructions and we will follow those to counter our political rivals who always try to create problems on different pretexts,” Biswas said.

Trinamul functionaries in Alipurduar said the show of strength was necessary to send a message to the KLO terror group as well as BJP MPs and MLAs, who have time and again rooted for the separate state. They said the KLO was formed in Alipurduar district by a group of Rajbanshi youths in the nineties and Jeevan Singha alias Tamir Das, its self-styled chief who has released a video ahead of Mamata’s visit, is from Kumargram block of the district.

“It is necessary to pass a strong message to the outfit from Jeevan Singha’s home ground. Also, a similar missive should be passed to BJP legislators who are trying to foment tension in the region by backing the demand and some others who, of late, have started harping on the issue in recent times. Our party is against any further division of Bengal,” said a Trinamul leader.

Jayanta Roy, the BJP MP of Jalpaiguri, has said he wants north Bengal to be a separate state. “I find no reason to oppose it. But let us be clear that our party does not support violence and we want to achieve the demands in a democratic manner,” said the MP.

Later in the evening, Roy did a U-turn. “We need autonomous councils like Assam for development of north Bengal,” he said.

Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson, however, brushed it aside.

“The local representatives (of north Bengal) might have said it because of the apathy and the lack of development which the region has faced for years. But our party’s stand is very clear. We want the geographical areas of Bengal to remain intact,” he said.