Mamata Marches to Matua Belt, Warns of Voter Delisting Under CAA

PTI, BONGAON, NOV 25 : Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday slammed the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls, claiming that voters in Matua-majority areas in the state would be "immediately delisted" if they declared themselves foreigners under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Addressing a rally here before a three-km march to Thakurnagar, Mamata also vowed to "shake" the BJP's foundation across the country if she was challenged in Bengal. The Chief Minister said, "human lives are too precious," and appealed to people "not to die by suicide under the fear of SIR". She claimed that 35-36 deaths had already been linked to panic surrounding the voter revision exercise, including several suicides.

Calling the SIR process chaotic, Mamata asserted the draft rolls would show "the disastrous situation created by the Election Commission and the BJP". The CM alleged that the poll body had turned into "a BJP Commission" acting on "instructions from Delhi" and would use "AI as a tool for manipulation".

The TMC supremo said she would support the SIR if it was conducted over "two or three years", and wondered why the exercise was being "rushed coercively within two months" ahead of the 2026 Bengal Assembly polls. The Chief Minister asserted that the Bihar poll outcome was the result of the SIR, as the "Opposition couldn't gauge the BJP's game there".

She insisted that not a single lawful voter would be struck off the rolls after the enumeration exercise. "I have come here to assure you, not to ask for votes. We will fight till the end. No genuine voter will be removed," Mamata stated.

Hitting out at the BJP, the CM said the party could deploy "crores of rupees and all Central agencies", but "would still not be able to fight" her politically. "If you try to target and hit me (politically) in Bengal, I will shake your foundation across the country... A wounded tiger is more dangerous than a living one," Mamata asserted.

The Chief Minister claimed that 10 booth-level officers (BLOs) engaged in the SIR process were hospitalised and three others lost their lives, referring to a case in Krishnanagar where a man allegedly blamed the EC before dying. "Who is responsible for these deaths?" she asked, pointing fingers at the "EC-BJP nexus".

The Chief Minister also questioned the rationale behind conducting SIR in BJP-ruled states if the goal was to remove "illegal Bangladeshis". "Does that mean you accept there are 'ghuspaithiyas' in the double-engine-ruled states?" she said.

At the rally, the CM reiterated her charge that under the CAA, anyone identifying as a foreigner would "be immediately delisted" as a voter. "Those who voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are genuine voters. If they are not, the government at the Centre has no right to govern," she said.

Mamata also accused BJP-linked groups aligned with the Matua Mahasangha headed by Shantanu Thakur in the region of issuing "misleading certificates" over their Bangladeshi origin. "They are cheating you. They are writing that you were in Bangladesh. Certificates dated November-December 2025 state you lived there till 2002. This is a big fraud," she claimed.

The Chief Minister sought to make a contrast with certificates issued by the Ramakrishna Mission. "They never write which country you belong to. Just because someone speaks Bengali, does that make them Bangladeshi? I love Bangladesh because our language is the same. Had I not been born in Birbhum, they would have called me Bangladeshi, too," Mamata stated.

TMC leaders maintain that the Matua community, despite the political noise, remains largely aligned with the party due to schemes and welfare programmes launched over the past decade. The BJP, however, has built an aggressive campaign around the CAA and refugee rights, banking heavily on the Matuas since 2019.