SIR process: Matua community feel ‘betrayed’; BJP to face backlash?

Kolkata: Amid growing fear and anger among the Matua community over mass deletion of names from electoral rolls after the SIR, the BJP may face a backlash in Matua-dominated areas of North 24-Parganas and Nadia along the India-Bangladesh border, where it had gained strong support in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections on the promise of implementing the CAA.

A section of the Matua community, feeling “betrayed” by the BJP, alleged that a “treachery” had been carried out by deleting voters’ names from the electoral rolls and delaying the notification of CAA rules. They said the BJP had promised them citizenship in 2019 and again revived the CAA issue in 2024 to “mislead” them.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on social media, on the 215th birth anniversary of the sect’s spiritual leader, Harichand Thakur, said the movement for fundamental rights of the people that was started by Harichand Thakur was being belittled by the BJP. In the name of SIR, citizenship rights were being taken away. Meanwhile, PM Modi on Monday extended greetings to the Matua community on the birth anniversary of Thakur.

According to sources, the names of around 36,000 matuas were deleted only in the Bongaon sub-division. Over 60,000 were under adjudication. It is uncertain how many of them will finally be able to vote in the Assembly elections.

“After the final list was published, the BJP leaders had assured that polls would not be held till the names of all Matus are cleared.

However, the polls were declared even with the thousands of voters in limbo. It was a clear treachery by the BJP,” a member of the Matua community said. “Under SIR exercise, the legitimate Matua voters were deleted from the rolls. Their own leaders shamelessly declared that it would be acceptable even if one lakh Matua names were removed. They went on to run sham CAA camps, promising citizenship in exchange for money.

Now another of their leaders sits with a lawyer and a laptop, collecting money from voters whose names were deleted, promising to get them restored to the electoral rolls,” TMC wrote on X.

Interestingly, over half of the BJP’s total tally of 77 seats in the 2021 elections came from constituencies dominated by the refugee communities. BJP won 14 out of 15 core matua-dominated seats. Matuas played a role in around 50 Assembly seats across Bengal, a majority of which went to BJP in 2021.

Matua-dominated areas will vote on phase II, scheduled for April 29.