Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday urged members of the All India Matua Mahasangha, who are on a hunger strike to demand the SIR exercise be withdrawn, to end their fast in the interest of their health.
Expressing full solidarity with their demands, he assured the protesting devotees that he would help them stage the movement "in a bigger way" in Delhi.
However, the protesters — aligned with the pro-Trinamool faction of the All India Matua Mahasangha led by the party’s Rajya Sabha member Mamatabala Thakur — refused to withdraw the hunger strike, insisting on a “letter of commitment” from chief minister Mamata Banerjee affirming that she would raise their concerns in Parliament through her party MPs.
Since November 5, 21 Matua devotees associated with the Mahasangha have been on a hunger strike, demanding either a rollback of the SIR process or at least a simplification of the provisions to exempt migrated Bengali-speaking voters.
They want the Election Commission to allow such voters to remain on the electoral rolls even if their names — or the names of their parents — are not found in the 2002 voters’ list, which has been set as the benchmark for the ongoing SIR exercise in Bengal.
So far, six fasting protesters have fallen ill and had to be hospitalised.
The agitation has drawn support from Opposition leaders as well: state Congress president Subhankar Sarkar, former MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty have all joined the protesters at Thakurnagar in recent days.
On Sunday, a Trinamool delegation led by ministers Shashi Panja and Snehasis Chakraborty met the fasting devotees and handed them a letter from Abhishek.
In the letter, the Diamond Harbour MP appealed to them to end their fast and assured them that he would intensify the movement at the national level to counter what he described as the BJP’s design to strip Matua and Bengali-speaking migrant citizens of their voting rights.
“No legitimate movement should go on at the cost of life. I therefore, with the highest respect, appeal to you to call off the movement since your safety is our responsibility,” Abhishek wrote.
He further stated: “Since 2019, those who are against Bengal have been exploiting the legitimate concerns of the Matua community. The objective is clear — to put lakhs of refugees and poor people in an identity crisis as Bengalis and push them into fear of becoming stateless.”
Expressing solidarity, he assured protesters that Trinamool “will continue its fight to ensure that no genuine voter is unlawfully dropped from the electoral rolls".
He promised to take their agitation to Delhi “to foil the conspiracy of the SIR exercise and protect the rights of voters”.
Initially, Mamatabala said Abhishek's appeal would be discussed and a decision taken on Monday. But the organisation’s general secretary, Sukesh Choudhary, later announced that the hunger strike would continue until a firm assurance is received from the chief minister or NDA leaders or the top leadership of the Congress that the issue would be raised in Parliament.
He gave out a message for the chief minister. “We welcome Abhishek Banerjee’s concern and appeal. But till we receive an assurance, particularly from Mamata Banerjee, in the form of a letter of commitment that she will take up our issue in Parliament (through her party's MPs), we cannot withdraw the hunger strike. We will be happy if she comes to Thakurnagar and speaks to us,” Choudhary said.