Kolkata: Matua leader from West Bengal Shantanu Thakur has clinched a minister of state (MoS) post for the second consecutive term in the Narendra Modi government.
He is the only junior minister from Bengal in the previous Modi cabinet who won from his seat in a hotly contested election between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the eastern state. His other colleagues, Dr Subhas Sarkar and Nishith Pramanik, lost while the BJP denied a ticket to John Barla, former MoS, minority affairs.
Thakur, who was made minister of state for Ports, Shipping and Waterways in a cabinet rejig in 2021, is now one of only two representatives from Bengal in Modi’s new Council of Ministers, the other being Sukanta Majumdar, who won from Balurghat constituency. His resounding victory — riding on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) implementation by Narendra Modi government just days before the Election Commission announced the general election dates — has been acknowledged by BJP’s central leadership.
But Thakur’s journey was a bumpy one — with him quitting the party’s WhatsApp groups, skipping Bengal BJP camps and even holding a meeting with a section of disgruntled BJP leaders at the Kolkata Port Trust guest house just a few kilometers away from then BJP state headquarters — before he was pacified with a portfolio.
Several leaders in Bengal BJP told ThePrint that Shantanu Thakur holds the key to the Matuas, the second-largest Scheduled Caste (SC) community in West Bengal after the Rajbanshis. A Dalit sub-caste, Matuas were traditionally known as Chandalas, who historically resided in the eastern and central parts of the then-undivided Bengal (now Bangladesh). The Matuas hold sway over six parliamentary seats and at least 30 assembly seats across West Bengal.
Former BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu, who attended the meeting of “disgruntled” leaders back in 2021, shared an anecdote about Shantanu Thakur’s family ties with the BJP that speaks of his importance. “Pramatha Ranjan Thakur, the founder of Thakurnagar and former Congress MLA, who was Shantanu’s grandfather, supported BJP founder Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee to stop Bengal from joining East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The deep-rooted ties between BJP and Thakurnagar’s first family dates back to the freedom movement,” he told ThePrint.
Shantanu Thakur retained the Bongaon parliamentary seat after defeating Biswajit Das, who switched from TMC to BJP, won the 2021 Bengal elections and went back to the TMC after polls. Thakur secured 7.19 lakh votes according to Election Commission data, defeating Das — who resigned as MLA before fighting the Lok Sabha polls on a TMC ticket — by a margin of over 73,600 votes.
Shantanu Thakur was the first non-TMC MP to win from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat in 2019. Political analyst Udayan Bandhopadhyay told ThePrint, “Shantanu reattaining his berth is just a thanksgiving gesture to the Matua community for their continuous support from the BJP.”
A senior BJP leader, who did not want to be named, told ThePrint that while the Bengal BJP is down from four junior ministers to only two now, the central leadership struck a balance by appointing a minister from North Bengal and one from South Bengal.
With the upcoming bypoll for vacated seats due to MLAs winning MP seats, Matuas will play a role in seats like Ranaghat Dakshin, Madarihat, and Sitai.
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Matuas & CAA
After the Lok Sabha results were declared, TMC chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee continued to raise her voice against the CAA, reiterating that she will not allow its implementation in West Bengal.
Addressing the media at her Kalighat residence Saturday after meeting the newly-elected party MPs, Mamata said, “Whatever bills were passed previously, there was no discussion, it was passed just like that. Our MPs will seek a discussion on NRC and it has to be scrapped. New government will ultimately be formed by the INDIA bloc.”
Meanwhile, the Union home ministry rolled out citizenship certificates in the state amid elections on 29 May. “The process of granting citizenship certificates under the CAA has now commenced in West Bengal, where the first set of applications from the state were today granted citizenship by the Empowered Committee, West Bengal and two other states,” the ministry had said in a statement.
Implementation of the CAA — under which the Centre grants citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India before 31 December, 2014 — had been a long-standing demand of the Matuas.
In 2019, Modi kickstarted his Lok Sabha poll campaign from Thakurnagar, after seeking blessings from Matua matriarch Bina Pani Debi, popularly known as Boro Maa.
The TMC too has been wooing this section. In 2018, Mamata announced the first Matua University in North 24 Parganas, named after Harichand and Guruchand Thakur, the founding fathers of the sect. In 2020, the West Bengal government set up a Matua Welfare Board in 2020 and announced a grant of Rs 10 crore. In February, the TMC sent Matua leader Mamata Bala Thakur to the Rajya Sabha.
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Family feud & political divide
The rift between Shantanu Thakur and his aunt, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur, took an ugly turn in the run-up to elections in Bongaon. In April, Mamata Bala Thakur reportedly filed a police complaint against her nephew Shantanu, brother-in-law Manjul Krishna Thakur and 13 others for allegedly breaking into and ransacking her home, vandalising the CCTV, stealing documents and valuables. Shantanu in turn accused his aunt of “illegally” occupying Boro Maa’s house which the devotees call the “holy abode”.
Shantanu Thakur heads the pro-BJP All India Matua Mahasangha, while Mamata Bala leads the pro-TMC section of the organisation.
Ties between the two turned sour after the sudden death of Kapil Krishna Thakur, Mamata Bala’s husband, barely five months after he won the Bongaon seat in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The bypoll triggered a family feud as Kapil Krishna’s younger brother Manjul — then a minister in the Mamata cabinet — wanted the TMC to field his younger son Subrata Thakur in the Bongaon bypoll, but the party fielded Kapil’s widow Mamata Bala instead. Manjul quit Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet and joined the BJP, which fielded Subrata. But Mamata Bala won the bypoll in 2015 and Manjul’s son’s defeat made him return to the TMC.
In 2016, when Manjul Thakur was denied a TMC ticket to fight the state polls, his elder son Shantanu eventually secured a BJP ticket from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat in 2019. Riding on the BJP’s promise of implementing CAA, Shantanu won from Bongaon, defeating his aunt Mamata Bala Thakur of the TMC. Shantanu’s younger brother Subrata went on to become a BJP MLA from Gaighata, a seat reserved for SCs, in 2021, from where his father had won a decade ago.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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