Matua faction led by Mamatabala begins hunger strike

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress-backed faction of the All-India Matua Mahasangha, led by its president and Rajya Sabha MP Mamatabala Thakur, began a hunger strike on Wednesday demanding the immediate cancellation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The protest was launched in front of the room of Binapani Devi (Boroma) at Thakurnagar, the community’s spiritual headquarters. Sources in the Trinamool Congress said the party fears that nearly 60 per cent of voters in the existing rolls—mostly Matuas and other Hindu migrants from Bangladesh who arrived after 2000—could face deletion under the SIR process.

“We apprehend that the SIR would rob the voting rights of backward communities like the Matuas. The rights ensured by the Indian Constitution are now being robbed by the BJP-led government through an organised conspiracy. To protest this and demand immediate cancellation of the SIR, we have decided to begin a fast-unto-death,” Mamatabala said in a recent statement.

Party leaders from the Matua community claimed that more than one crore Matuas could lose their voting rights if the revision continues. “The SIR process could lead to large-scale exclusion of Matua voters — a development the community will not tolerate,” said a Trinamool leader from Thakurnagar. The Matuas, a community of Hindu refugees, have a significant presence in about 40 Assembly constituencies across North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas and Nadia districts. While many Matuas supported the BJP in recent years, the panic over SIR has caused unease within the party’s Matua faction. Union Minister and Bongaon MP Shantanu Thakur assured the community that there was “no reason to worry,” adding that any refugee Matua whose name was deleted would get Indian citizenship under the CAA. However, his statement failed to allay fears. Mamatabala Thakur, who heads the rival faction, alleged that many Matuas who arrived after 2002 lack documents and could lose their voting rights.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Subrata Thakur, Shantanu’s brother, launched a new wing of the All-India Matua Mahasangha on Tuesday, signalling a widening rift within the community’s BJP-aligned leadership.