The Matua sect of Namashudras – a Dalit community – was set up by Harichand Thakur in present-day Bangladesh in the 19th century. Millions of them have immigrated to India – many even before Bangladesh was born – over the years to escape persecution as well as in search of a better life.

They are the Bangladeshi “intruders” that Bengal does not have a problem with; Matuas make up the second-largest Scheduled Caste (SC) community in the state.

Every party in Bengal, including the BJP, Congress, CPM and the ruling Trinamool, tries to woo the Matuas in every election with the promise of fighting for citizenship rights for those who do not have.

The professed aim of the SIR exercise is to weed out ineligible names from the voter lists, not to identify illegal aliens. But Ghosh isn’t the only one scared that losing voting rights would mean deportation.

According to the draft voter’s list released by the Election Commission after the SIR in Bengal, the Matua-dominated regions have thousands of names that have not been mapped to anyone in the 2002 list. Bongaon Uttar and Dakshin have 26,053 and 18,562 non-mapped names respectively, while the Ranaghat Uttar Purba and Ranaghat Dakshin constituencies have over 15,000 non-mapped names.

Several members of the Matua community expressed their fear and concerns over their identification in India with the SIR underway. Almost all of them, whether they came before 2002 or after, don’t have links to the 2002 list.

Those who have voted before but whose names have not made it to the draft voter list after the SIR will be called for a hearing where they will have to furnish at least one document from a list that does not include PAN or Aadhaar.