PM pitches CAA implementation, UCC rollout after BJP forms govt; warns infiltrators in bengal campaign

Katwa/Jangipur/Kushmandi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday gave the BJP’s Bengal campaign a sharp ideological edge, weaving together citizenship, identity and infiltration as he promised to speed up citizenship under the CAA for refugee communities if voted to power, pledged to implement the Uniform Civil Code and warned infiltrators’ to “pack their bags”.

Addressing rallies from the Matua belt of Katwa to Muslim-majority Jangipur and the tribal-dominated border area of Kushmandi, Modi sought to turn the 2026 Assembly polls into a straight fight between what he called “TMC’s fear and BJP’s trust”, asking voters to give the BJP “five years” after 34 years of the Left and 15 years of the TMC.

Claiming that rapid demographic changes were taking place in several parts of the state, he alleged that the ruling party had abandoned its old slogan of “Maa-Mati-Manush (mother-land-people)” and now relies on appeasement, infiltrators and vote-bank politics to retain power, declaring that “the BJP would not allow Bengalis to become a minority in the state”.

The three rallies together offered a picture of the BJP’s Bengal strategy: stitch together citizenship for refugee communities, demographic anxieties, anti-infiltration rhetoric, welfare promises and anger against the TMC into a single political narrative of change.

The BJP’s choice of venues reflected the social coalition it is trying to build weeks ahead of the polls -- Matuas and Namasudras in south Bengal, Hindu consolidation in Muslim-majority Murshidabad and Rajbanshi, tribal and border voters in north Bengal.

“I have come to give a guarantee to the Matua, Namasudra and refugee families of Bengal. You are not here by the grace of any TMC leader. You are here under the protection of the Constitution,” the PM said at Katwa.

“Modi enacted the CAA law so that Matua, Namasudra and refugee families receive the guarantee of the Constitution. As soon as a BJP government is formed here, the work of granting citizenship to refugee families under CAA will be expedited,” he said.

The promise came a day after the Bengal BJP manifesto pledged citizenship and rehabilitation for all Hindu refugees, a message aimed at Matua and Namasudra voters, many of whom have complained of large-scale deletions from electoral rolls during the SIR.

Modi paired the citizenship promise with a warning on alleged illegal immigration.

At Jangipur, PM Modi sharpened the BJP’s identity pitch, promising to implement the Uniform Civil Code in West Bengal.