Maharani shadow looms large on Cooch Behar

Kolkata: Even a decade after her death, Maharani Gayatri Devi’s shadow looms large on Cooch Behar. The city— ruled by Koch rulers — is dipped in the legacies of the princess of Cooch Behar who later became the Rajmata of Jaipur.
While Devi ran for the parliamentary seat in 1962 and was elected an MP for three consecutive terms from Jaipur, she remained a bête noire of the Congress-ruled government.She contested from Swatantra Party, a political outfit founded by C Rajagopalachari.
In 1967, Swatantra Party went into an alliance with Jan Sangh and Devi won the Lok Sabha seat again. For years, Swatantra Party and Jan Sangh worked closely and Devi continued her active political career till she was arrested during Emergency.
“Any political narrative about Cooch Behar is incomplete without Gayatri Devi and the turmoil she had to go through during Emergency. She had been jailed by the Congress government and that was a big setback for the Rajbongshis in Cooch Behar,” said Nisith Pramanik, the BJP candidate from Cooch Behar.
TMC, keen to get a grip over Rajbongshi sentiments about the royal family, has been showcasing the beautification work around the Royal Palace.
“The state government has spent crores for the beautification work. The sentiments and pride of the Rajbongshi people are of great importance to the government,” said Paresh Adhikari, Trinamool’s candidate from Cooch Behar.
Rajbanshis, who comprise around 54% population in the district, have over the decades influenced the polls in all the seven assembly segments in Cooch Behar. A separatist movement, demanding a separate state of Kamtapur started gaining ground since the Left Front regime.
Immediately after it came to power, Trinamool started strengthening its bridges with the Rajbanshis. Kamtapuri and Rajbanshi made it to the official language in the state through the West Bengal Official Language (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018.