Matua community citizenship issue: PM Modi to kick off BJP's campaign to counter Trinamool on Dec 20

Trinamool Congress has alleged that several people from the community will lose their voting rights following the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the state, which will ultimately result in loss of their citizenship.

A state committee member of West Bengal BJP informed that December 20 has been fixed as the tentative date for the mega rally at Ranaghat, one of the two main Matua bastions in the state, with the other being Bangaon in the North 24 Parganas district.

In fact, the current Lok Sabha member from the Ranaghat constituency is the BJP’s Jagannath Sarkar, who had been elected twice from that constituency -- first in 2019 and then in 2024.

Matuas are people from the socially backward Hindu community who came to West Bengal as religious refugees from neighbouring Bangladesh over a period of time; they constitute a substantial percentage of voters in two Bangladesh-bordering West Bengal districts -- North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

Since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, a substantial section of the Matua voters had been supporting the BJP in each and every election.

Political observers feel that if the BJP wants to fulfil its dreams to grab power in West Bengal after the Assembly elections scheduled next year, it is very important to get its candidates elected from the Matua-dominated constituencies throughout the state, especially in Nadia and North 24 Parganas district.

“Probably, that is why they have chosen Ranaghat as the venue for the mega rally from where the Prime Minister will be kicking off the party’s counter-campaign against Trinamool Congress’s propaganda on the SIR-impact on the Matua voters,” a city-based political observer said.

Political observers also feel that the fact that the BJP is starting the campaigning for the Assembly polls so early, and that too involving the Prime Minister, proves that their recent slogan “After Odisha in 2024 and Bihar in 2025, it will be West Bengal in 2026,” after a landslide victory in Bihar this year, was not simply a figure of speech.