Kolkata: Celebrations broke out in the West Bengal BJP office moments after the Centre notified the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules, just ahead of Lok Sabha elections. Union Minister of State Shantanu Thakur, who is part of the Matua community which has long demanded implementation of CAA, exchanged sweets with other state leaders.
“This was our long-standing demand and Modi ji’s guarantee was fulfilled. In the coming days, this will have an impact on the elections and the results will speak. This law is not just for Bengal but for our country,” said Thakur.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made it clear that she will closely read the rules before commenting, but called them a “lollipop” before polls. Addressing an unscheduled media briefing at the state secretariat before the notification was issued by the centre, Mamata said, “This law was passed in 2020, After multiple extensions, its implementation days before the election shows that it is being done due to political reasons. After seeing the rules and reading the report I will speak on it on Tuesday.”
Both the BJP and TMC have announced their candidates from Bongaon, a Matua stronghold. BJP’s sitting MP Shantanu Thakur will be taking on TMC’s Biswajit Das after Mamata Bala Thakur was already sent to the Rajya Sabha by Mamata Banerjee last month.
A Dalit sub-caste traditionally known as Chandalas, the Namasudras historically resided in the eastern and central parts of undivided Bengal. The 19th century saw the caste group mobilise under a socio-religious protest sect called Matua, which got them their current name, the Matua-Namasudra.
Matua-Namasudras form around 40 percent of the electorate in the community’s strongholds of Ranaghat (SC) and Bongaon (SC) Lok Sabha constituencies, and also play a decisive role in around 30 assembly constituencies across the state.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the community helped the BJP win both Ranaghat (SC) and Bongaon (SC) seats by big margins.
“CAA implementation will have a big impact on Matua dominated seats in Bengal. The Matuas have been promised CAA by the prime minister himself in 2019 and now before they vote again, it has been delivered. This will blunt the opposition narrative that the BJP doesn’t keep its promise. This now becomes a sticky point for Mamata Banerjee who said she wouldn’t allow the implementation of CAA in Bengal and is now left with no choice as she fights the BJP. The BJP will electorally gain from the Matuas and the marginalised communities,” political analyst Snigdhendu Bhattacharya told ThePrint.
The CAA was passed in Parliament in December 2019, to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, Buddhists, and Jains from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered India before 31 December 2014. After it was notified in 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs sought multiple extensions from the Lok Sabha’s Committee on Subordinate Legislation — the parliamentary panel mandated to check if the powers to make regulations are being correctly exercised — to prepare the CAA rules.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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