Mamata will not get Matua votes, Suvendu claims after TMC rally

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Suvendu Adhikari on Monday said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee “will not get the Matua Namashudra vote”, hours after Ms. Banerjee led a rally at the the Matua heartland in North 24 Parganas opposing the Special Intensive Revision of the State’s voters list.

“Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur established the Matua community to protect Sanatana dharma under pressure of religious conversion. After 1945, the Matua’s ongoing fight came to a conclusion in 2019, when Prime Minister Modi came to Thakurnagar… and promised citizenship rights to the Bangladeshi Hindu refugees who came here to escape religious persecution,” Mr. Adhikari said at a BJP rally in West Bengal’s Birbhum.

The Matua sect, comprising Namashudra Hindus, was founded at Orakandi in present-day Bangladesh in the late 19th century. Since 1947, the Matuas migrated from Bangladesh and settled down in West Bengal, mostly in border districts like the North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Howrah, Cooch Behar and Malda.

In 2019, the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) — which facilitates citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from neighbouring countries — created ripples within the community, with BJP’s Shantanu Thakur of the Matua sect winning the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat both in 2019 and 2024. 

Currently, the BJP is operating hundreds of ‘CAA camps’ in these regions amidst the ongoing SIR, encouraging Matuas and other Bangladeshi Hindu refugees to apply for citizenship under CAA for eventual inclusion in West Bengal’s electoral rolls. Conversely, in the anti-SIR rally on Tuesday (November 25, 2025), the Chief Minister warned Matua voters of inadvertently getting disqualified from the electorate by declaring themselves as foreigners under the CAA.

“In the last three days, 500 certificates have been issued under the CAA. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are there for Hindu refugees… [Mamata Banerjee] should have begged for forgiveness from the Matua community for opposing the CAA and their right to citizenship,” said Mr. Adhikari.

‘West Bengal Police advancing Trinamool agenda’

Mr. Adhikari also wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday (November 25, 2025), accusing State police officials of being affiliated to Trinamool and demanding the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) “to ensure neutrality” in upcoming Assembly polls in 2026.

The LoP cited instances from a “Second State Conference of Women Police Personnel” reportedly organized by the West Bengal Police Welfare Committee on November 22, 2025, at Digha, Purba Medinipur district, where, he alleged, a few high-ranking police officials had vocalised their support for a fourth Chief Ministerial term for Ms. Banerjee following the 2026 polls.

“Over 1000+ police personnel from both the Kolkata Police and the West Bengal Police, along with another 1000+ civic police volunteers, are actively involved in political work for the TMC Party under the banner of this so-called Welfare Committee. These members have been directly entangling with the TMC, attending political rallies such as the “Sahid Dibas” while wearing TMC T-shirts, conducting press conferences on behalf of the party, and even coaching family members of police personnel for holding partisan media engagements,” Mr. Adhikari alleged in his letter.

He also accused the West Bengal Police Welfare Committee of booth jamming, rigging, threatening and intimidating Opposition party cadres and police personnel unwilling to engage in such activities.

In his letter, Mr. Adhikari urged the Chief Election Commissioner to “initiate a thorough investigation into the West Bengal Police Welfare Committee’s activities and its affiliations with the TMC, including the role of serving officers in partisan events”. He also demanded the suspension of and disciplinary action against police officers involved in ‘partisan activities’. 

“While an on-duty officer cannot make political statements, the police have the right to carry out activities as a federation or union. So, the speeches made in an event by the Police Welfare Committee should not concern Mr. Adhikari. Secondly, he is throwing stones from inside a glass house. These accusations should not be made by a party that politicises the Indian Army,” Trinamool Congress spokesperson Arup Chakraborty told The Hindu.