Mamata Banerjee in Bhowanipore on Sunday. (Sanat Kumar Sinha)

March 14: Mamata Banerjee was today appointed the chief patron of the All India Matua Mahasabha, whose 1.2 crore members across 74 Assembly constituencies in Bengal, were wooed by the Left Front in the last Lok Sabha elections.

The Matuas, who are mostly Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, are spread across eight districts — Howrah, the two 24-Parganas, Nadia, Malda, Cooch Behar, South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur.

Jyotipriya Mullick, the Trinamul MLA from Gaighata in North 24-Parganas on whose insistence Mamata became a member of the Mahasabha six months back, said: “As the chief patron of the Matua Mahasabha, Mamatadi will get the support of its 1.2 crore members who had till recently backed the Left Front. These Mahasabha members will now vote for us.”

In Mullick’s constituency of Gaighata, 62 per cent of the voters are Matuas.

“I encouraged Mamatadi to become a member of the Matua Mahasabha six months back,” Mullick said. “Today, she came closer to the Matua community as its chief patron.”

This evening, Mamata took a special train from Sealdah to Thakurbari, about 70km away. The station at which travellers get off is the Thakurnagar station, but for Mamata, the train went straight to Thakurbari.

There, a ladder was brought so that Mamata could alight from the train as there is no platform.

Mamata went straight to Binapani Debi, the chief adviser of the Mahasabha who is affectionately called Ma by her devotees.

“Ma garlanded Mamatadi and then handed her a letter confirming her appointment as chief patron of the organisation. Mamatadi offered her pranam and gifted Ma a shawl,” said Mullick, who was present there.

The Trinamul MLA claimed that over 3 lakh Matuas had stood on both sides of the road to welcome Mamata.

The CPM, asked about Mamata’s attempt to woo the community, said the Matuas must not be “misguided”.

Party state secretariat member Rabin Deb said: “We have a solid vote bank among the Matuas. We must appeal to them not to be misguided.”

He added: “I am leaving it to their conscience to take a decision on whether they would back this dangerous move to mix religion with politics.”

Deb, who has lost to Mamata twice in the Calcutta South parliamentary seat, said the Union railway minister should have “refrained from mixing religion with politics”.

Sources among the Matuas said several Left Front leaders, among them CPM politburo member Brinda Karat, party state secretary Biman Bose, Forward Bloc secretary Asoke Ghosh and the late CPM minister Subhas Chakraborty, had visited Ma’s residence at Thakurnagar to woo the Matuas before the last general elections. “We remember Left Front leaders earlier visited Ma with the sole objective of getting the votes of our 1.2 crore devotees,” said an elderly member of the Mahasabha.

Bose had alleged after the 2009 Lok Sabha polls that Trinamul supporters had spread rumours in Bongaon, North 24-Parganas, that a temple where the Matuas pray had been attacked. “They spread this rumour to stop the deeply religious Matua people from voting,” he said.

State Trinamul Congress president Subrata Bakshi said: “Mamata, who has been able to woo Muslims away from the Left, will be able to consolidate her vote bank in the Matua community as well. Days are coming when people cutting across religions will back Mamata because of her pro-people attitude.”

A vice-president of Trinamul’s minority cell also welcomed Mamata’s overtures to the Matua community.