The pro-BJP faction of the All India Matua Mahasangha has appealed to the Bengal chief electoral officer not to delete the names of voters who have applied for citizenship through the amended citizenship law (CAA) portal, even if their names or those of their parents are missing from the 2002 electoral roll.
Fearing that a large number of Matua and other Hindu migrants could be removed from the rolls under the allegedly exclusionary, opaque process by the Election Commission, the Mahasangha has submitted a deputation to the CEO, urging that such voters be retained if they have already applied for citizenship and can produce an acknowledgement from the CAA portal.
The BJP and its Matua allies are now beginning to realise that the SIR could disastrously backfire and cost the party heavily in these constituencies, as many of those at risk of deletion are Hindu migrants aligned with the BJP. Since re-enrolling them as voters after citizenship is granted would take time, the party wants the poll panel to allow them to remain on the list so that they can exercise their franchise in the upcoming polls.
Party leaders are also in touch with Amit Shah's Union home ministry to explore whether applicants under the CAA could be allowed to vote even if their names are temporarily removed during the SIR process.
"Nobody should panic. We have already appealed to the Election Commission not to delete the names of genuine voters, particularly the migrated Hindu people, even if their or their parents’ names are not found in the 2002 list. Since citizenship application is the only solution to stay on the roll, we have requested the CEO not to harass such people and to keep them in the voters' list based on their application for citizenship," said Mahitosh Baidya, former general secretary of the pro-BJP faction of the Mahasangha.
Initial mapping by the Election Commission has shown that several Matua-dominated constituencies in North 24-Parganas have a large concentration of voters in the “Red Zone” — a category for those whose identity could not be matched with the 2002 electoral roll. Gaighata tops the list, with around 52 per cent of its current electorate falling in this category, posing a serious challenge for their retention.
Of the 1,56,392 voters in Gaighata, about 82,328 across 158 polling stations, including those in Thakurnagar, the holy abode of the Matua community, are marked as “pending” under verification. Sources in the Mahasangha said most of these people belong to the Matua community and to poorer Hindu families who migrated from Bangladesh after 2002.
Booth-level officers explained that “Red Zone” voters are those whose names, and those of their parents, do not appear in the 2002 list — the poll panel's benchmark year. Similar patterns have emerged in other Matua-dominated blocks such as Bagda and Bongaon South, sparking anxiety among Hindu refugees who migrated to India in the last two or three decades.
According to EC guidelines, a voter must submit one of 12 types of documents issued before July 1, 1987, to establish eligibility. However, most post-2002 migrants do not possess such documents, making it difficult to meet the requirement.
Sensing growing concern, the BJP, which draws substantial electoral support from the Matua community, has launched a campaign across border districts to reassure Hindu refugees. The party has begun organising citizenship assistance camps and has instructed its district units to hold at least 700 such camps across the state.
Bongaon MP and Union minister of state for shipping Shantanu Thakur, a key Matua leader, has also urged community members to stay calm.