Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the BJP’s sustained campaign to counter the Trinamool Congress on the controversial citizenship issue concerning the Matua community during a mega rally in Ranaghat, Nadia district of West Bengal, this month.
The Trinamool Congress has alleged that many members of this community will lose their voting rights following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) currently underway in the state by the Election Commission of India (ECI), which will eventually lead to them losing their citizenship as well.
A state committee member of the West Bengal BJP said that December 20 has been finalized as the date for the mega rally in Ranaghat. Ranaghat is one of the two main strongholds of the Matua community in the state, the other being Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district.
Incidentally, the sitting Lok Sabha member from the Ranaghat constituency is Jagannath Sarkar of the BJP, who has been elected from this constituency twice – first in 2019 and then again in 2024.
The Matuas are a socially backward Hindu community who have migrated to West Bengal from neighboring Bangladesh from time to time as religious refugees; they constitute a significant percentage of voters in two districts of West Bengal bordering Bangladesh – North 24 Parganas and Nadia.
Since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a large section of Matua voters has been supporting the BJP in every election.
Political observers believe that if the BJP wants to fulfill its dream of coming to power in West Bengal after the assembly elections next year, it is crucial for them to win seats from Matua-dominated constituencies across the state, especially in Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts.
“Perhaps that is why they have chosen Ranaghat as the venue for the mega rally, from where the Prime Minister will launch the party’s counter-campaign against the Trinamool Congress’s propaganda regarding the impact of the SIR on Matua voters,” a city-based political observer said. Political observers also believe that the BJP’s early start to campaigning for the assembly elections, and the Prime Minister’s involvement in it, proves that their recent slogan after the big victory in Bihar this year, “Odisha in 2024 and Bihar in 2025, followed by West Bengal in 2026,” was not just empty talk.
