Kamtapur Progressive Party (now merged with

Kamtapur People's Party Kamtapur People's Party (KPP) is a political party working in the northern parts of the Indian state of West Bengal. KPP was founded in January 1996 by Atul Roy. KPP works amongst the Rajbanshi population. KPP demands the set up of a separate K ...

) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

in northern

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Atul Roy was the president of the party. The party was formed after a split from the

, ahead of the

2006 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election Assembly elections were held in Indian state of West Bengal to elect the members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly . The election took place in five phases between 17 April and 8 May. The votes were counted three days later on May 11, 2006, and ...

. The party demanded the formation of a

Kamtapur Kamtapur is an autonomous area in the Assam state of India administered by the Kamatapur Autonomous Council. History Kamatapur emerged as a sovereign state in the middle of the 13th century, and it continued through fluctuating levels of prosp ...

state. KPP was a part of the

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing and Conservatism, conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was foun ...

Statehood issue

On the issue of the formation of a

state, the Kamtapur Progressive Party and the Kamtapur People's Party had similar positions. The relation between the two parties was not very good however, as both blamed each other for the split in Kamtapur People's Party. Also, they diverged on the issue of support to

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) is a registered unrecognized political party, that campaigns for the creation of a separate state Gorkhaland within India, out of districts in the north of West Bengal. The party was launched on 7 October 2007. T ...

(GJM). The Kamtapur Progressive Party was supportive of the GJM, whilst the Kamtapur People's Party opposed it. The Kamtapur People's Party rejected including lands they considered as belonging to Kamtapuris to be included in a

Gorkhaland The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration is a semi-autonomous council for the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal state in India. The GTA was formed in 2012 to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which was formed in 198 ...

state. The Kamtapur Progressive Party on the other hand was less vocal on the exact delimitations between prospective Gorkhaland and Kamtapur states. The GJM and Kamtapur Progressive Party were cooperating with the Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party, which was spearheading the campaign for a 'Greater Cooch Behar' state. The Kamtapur Progressive Party also campaigned for constitutional recognition for the

Kamtapuri language Rangpuri is an eastern Indo-Aryan language of the Bengali-Assamese branch, spoken in northern West Bengal, western Goalpara of Assam in India and Rangpur Division in Bangladesh. Many are bilingual in Bengali and Assamese in their respecti ...

2009 election

In mid-April 2009, ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Kamtapur Progressive Party announced that it would support the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

candidate

Jaswant Singh Major Jaswant Singh (; 3 January 193827 September 2020) was an officer of the Indian Army and an Indian Cabinet Minister. He was one of the founding members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and was one of India's longest serving parliamen ...

in the Darjeeling constituency. The announcement was made after the BJP had pledged support for the central KPP demand of forming a 'Kamtapur state' out of the northern districts of West Bengal. Subsequently, the

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party in ...

candidate in Darjeeling (who had been supported by the KPP), Shanta Kumar Singha, withdrew his candidature.

Merger with Kamtapur People's Party

In October 2010, Atul Roy and Nikhil Roy (the then president of Kamtapur People's Party) decided to bury the hatchet and Atul merged his party with Kamtapur People's Party.Factions Merge for Kamtapur Fight
/ref> There is only one Kamtapur People's Party today and Kamtapur Progressive Party ceased to exist. Atul Roy is the president of the party and Nikhil Roy is the general secretary.

References

External links

A documentary on the demand of statehood of Kamtapur
2010 disestablishments in India Defunct political parties in West Bengal Former member parties of the National Democratic Alliance Political parties disestablished in 2010 Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Political parties with year of establishment missing {{India-party-stub