Kolkata: The BJP seemed to have pinned its hope on the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the electoral rolls to get political mileage ahead of 2026 assembly elections in Bengal, but the saffron party may face the backlash as a section of Matuas and Rajbanshi communities have already become sceptical over the process.
Many of the leaders from the saffron camp who had advocated for the SIR, NRC were seeing “impending danger” for the BJP as the Matuas and Rajbangshi people were raising questions on the BJP. Many of the Matuas are scared that their names may be removed from the electoral roll, if SIR is implemented in the state.
Bongaon north BJP MLA Ashoke Kirtania, Gaighata BJP MLA Subrata Thakur and Haringhata BJP MLA Ashim Sarkar have already quit BJP’s WhatsApp group. BJP MP from Bongaon, Shantanu Thakur, also quit the group.
The infighting within the BJP came out in the open once again when a camp organised by the party in Nadia to reassure the Hindus, who crossed over from Bangladesh to India over the decades, was recently vandalised, allegedly by a faction within the local unit of the party. Ashim Sarkar earlier warned that Matuas, a Hindu lower-caste community with roots in Bangladesh, would not spare the BJP if the saffron party did not give adequate attention to granting citizenship to the people belonging to the Matua community. Sarkar made a startling allegation in a video that went viral, where he said that attempts are being made to remove the names of BJP supporters who are Hindu, particularly those belonging to the Matua community in the border areas of Bongaon and Ranaghat, in the name of the implementation of the SIR.
Shantanu Thakur earlier said that none of the Hindu refugees, who had come to India from Bangladesh, would be disenfranchised. Shantanu’s aunt, Mamata Bala Thakur, a TMC MP, however, said that the Matuas would be unfairly and unnecessarily put into trouble by the SIR.