The BJP has gone full throttle before the Assembly polls to accuse the Mamata Banerjee government of actively encouraging infiltration for votebank gains, claiming a large stretch of the India-Bangladesh border in Bengal has stayed porous as the ruling Trinamool Congress deliberately did not provide land to the Centre for fencing.
The move comes as a counter to repeated attacks by the chief minister and her party on the BSF and Union home minister Amit Shah, accusing them of failing to protect the border and putting the onus of infiltration on the Narendra Modi government.
“Whenever the issue of infiltration through the India-Bangladesh border comes up, Mamata Banerjee and her party members always blame the BSF and Union home minister Amit Shah. However, after the recent Calcutta High Court order asking the state government to provide land (for fencing) by March 31 this year, it has become clear that a vast stretch of the border remains unfenced only because the Mamata Banerjee government did not give land, allowing infiltrators, including Bangladeshi Muslims and the Rohingya, free entry,” said BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari at a news meet at the party’s Salt Lake office on Tuesday.
Adhikari, who is the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, claimed that the state government did not provide land for fencing the border despite eight attempts by the Centre, including a personal request to Mamata Banerjee by Shah during the Eastern Zonal Council meeting at Nabanna in 2022.
Adhikari played a speech by Shah last year in response to a question from Trinamool MP Sougata Roy in Parliament. There, the Union home minister claimed that while border protection work was completed in Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam, Kashmir and Gujarat, over 500km of the border remained unfenced in Bengal because the state government did not provide land, apparently to take part in a “Ghuspetiya Bachao Yatra (save infiltrators march)".
Adhikari said he wanted to make the 10 crore people of Bengal aware that border security work was incomplete because of the Trinamool government and not the BSF and Shah.
During Shah's January 31 meeting at Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas, he claimed that the Mamata government would not provide the land despite the high court order, and that a BJP chief minister, who would take oath after the elections, would complete the task within 45 days.
A BJP source said that raising the border issue was crucial for the party, not just for the Bengal elections but also for the Bangladesh election scheduled for February 12, where it appears likely that the Jamaat–BNP alliance will form the government.
“The BJP has been relying heavily on Hindu consolidation in Bengal after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh in 2024. However, many questions remain in the minds of Hindu voters because of Trinamool's allegations against our party. A campaign that shifts the blame of infiltration to Mamata is likely to help us in the Assembly election,” said a BJP leader.
In reply, Trinamool spokesperson Arup Chakraborty referred to the terror attacks in Pahalgam and New Delhi. “Then our question is, how did terrorists enter and kill our citizens in Pahalgam, where the border is secured and under the surveillance of Amit Shah? How can an explosion happen in the heart of the national capital? So there is no reason to shift the blame on Trinamool. The fact is that the entire failure lies with Amit Shah, and the BJP has been desperately trying to cover up his incompetence,” he said.
Political observers believe the BJP has revived the issue after its infiltration narrative took a backseat following the first phase of the special intensive revision of the poll roll, where many Muslim-dominated districts recorded the highest percentage of mapping with the 2002 rolls.
“The BJP has been heavily relying on Bangladesh and polarisation in this election,” said Zaad Mahmood, who teaches political science at Presidency University. “The infiltration narrative did not gain pace as we found that the percentage of mapping with the 2002 roll was high in Muslim-dominated districts, and people produced proper documents during the SIR hearings. So now the BJP may try to set the narrative that the border cannot be protected because of Mamata Banerjee."
Fear factor
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday claimed that chief minister Mamata Banerjee had falsely claimed in her recent affidavit to the Supreme Court that she had taken files from ED custody on January 8 with their permission. He claimed she took the files with incriminating evidence out of fear that she would be jailed. “Even a child can understand that she lied. Everyone saw her addressing reporters after taking out the files during the ED raid. She was never heard saying about taking files with permission. Whatever she did was out of fear of being jailed,” Adhikari claimed.