Matua group to field Independent candidates in 3 Lok Sabha seats

At a time when the BJP desperately wants the Matua community by its side in the 2024 Lok Sabha (LS) elections and to consolidate Matua votes through the notification of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules, a faction within the community is planning to field Independent candidates in three LS constituencies — Barasat, Bongaon and Krishnanagar triggering worry for the ruling party in the Centre.

If a section of Matuas who are believed to be a potential support base of the BJP shift their allegiance to Independent candidates, it may erode the BJP’s vote bank, feel the political experts. These are the people who are “disillusioned” with the BJP’s promises that CAA might bring significant changes in their lives as the rules framed by the BJP have certain pre-conditions that the Matua community never wanted. In the latest development, an organisation within the Matuas — “Shantipur Matua Foundation” is contemplating fielding Independent candidates for the three LS seats. This organisation had earlier decided to field an Independent candidate in East Burdwan but they later changed their decision. The candidate who was considered as an Independent candidate for East Burdwan fell ill. The Matua community threw its weight behind the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha, helping it win a record number of LS seats from the state. But two years later, the support splintered in the Assembly polls.

Both Trinamool Congress and BJP are trying to consolidate Matua votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in their favour as the community is the dominant factor in nearly half a dozen Lok Sabha (LS) seats in North 24-Parganas and Nadia.

Matuas form over 40 per cent of the total population in at least 30 to 33 Assembly segments of North 24-Parganas and Nadia. Trinamool leaders have already claimed that the implementation of the CAA in the Matua-dominated areas may backfire for the BJP as a section of Matuas are apprehensive over applying for citizenship under CAA on certain conditions fearing that it may land them at detention camps if they fail to produce documents to substantiate their persecution. Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee also tried to convince the Matuas of the same possibility during her recent campaigns.

TMC MP and chairperson of Matua Mahasangha Mamata Bala Thakur also pointed out that they had a demand for citizenship but without any prior conditions but now the BJP-led Centre is demanding documents. She also said how these people who were persecuted long ago will submit documents to substantiate under which circumstances they had to flee the country they were originally from.