Kamtapur Progressive Party (now merged with Kamtapur People's Party) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area'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 language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Atul Roy was the president of the party. The party was formed after a split from the Kamtapur People's Party, ahead of the

2006 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election Assembly elections were held in the 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, ...

. 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 The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

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 The Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party (GCBDP) is a political party based in the northern regions of West Bengal, India. The party advocates for the creation of a separate state, termed Greater Cooch Behar. It was established in 2006 followin ...

, 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 (Rangpuri: অংপুরি ''Ôṅgpuri'' or অমপুরি ''Ômpuri'') is an eastern Indo-Aryan language of the Bengali-Assamese branch, spoken in Rangpur Division in Bangladesh, northern West Bengal and western Goalpara ...

2009 election

In mid-April 2009, ahead of the

Lok Sabha election Lok or LOK may refer to: Places * Lok, Serbia, a village * Lok, Levice District, Slovakia, a village * Lok, Pakistan, a village * Loka (pronounced Lok): a plane of existence in Dharma People Surname Lok (English origin) * Anne Locke, Loc ...

, 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 List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

candidate

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

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 is one of the List of political parties in India#State parties, state parties in India and is one of the major political parties in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra with a recognised state party statu ...

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