Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the BJP-led Centre are consistently at loggerheads. With the 2026 assembly elections inching closer, the acrimony, if anything, has sharpened.
But events in neighbouring Nepal have thrown this familiar equation awry. The two sides have now been forced to call truce in view of security at the border districts.
Bengal shares a 100-odd-km border — including the vulnerable chicken’s neck area in Siliguri — with Nepal.
The Himalayan nation has been witnessing a political upheaval with the Gen Z protests. But even now that an interim government headed by Sushila Karki is in place, India has not relaxed the vigilance at the border that was amped up when the trouble started last week.
“These are issues of national interest and on these issues, there is no Trinamool-BJP rift. We should be careful about national interest. We are united on the security issue,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said.
During his recent visit to the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not made any mention of the political rivalry either.
In a first, a combined meeting of corps commanders was held at the Fort William — the headquarters of the Eastern Command — attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security advisor Ajit Doval.
The additional security at the border includes an increase in the deployment of the Border Security Force.
There has been more army deployment and surveillance and the SSB (Sashastra Seema Bal) is working in coordination with state police to monitor the bridge connecting Nepal and India at Panitanki.
Extensive intelligence sharing is happening between the Centre and the state as well.
The state government has its own intelligence wing and its findings are regularly being sent to the offices of the Prime Minister and the National Security Advisor.
State police chief Rajeev Kumar has been submitting reports on basis of the findings of the intelligence wing. The state’s Chief Secretary had been liaisoning with the Prime Minister’s Office and the Union home secretary.
Intelligence sources said they have found Chinese currency available and useable in Katmandu market. This has given rise to a threat perception about the presence of Chinese influence in the neighbouring country.
While India and China have registered an upswing in bilateral relation following the SCO meet earlier this month, the intelligence agencies have their guard up, sources said.
On Wednesday, Governor CV Ananda Bose had gone to visit the Nepal border. The Chief Minister had asked the Governor to drop the idea in view of the security risk. But with the Governor determined, Ms Banerjee had made all the arrangements with the help of the state police. Mr Bose went to the Phasidewa area, where he inspected the fencing and interacted with the security forces guarding it.