The BJP, led by the leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday demanded that Bengal's chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal implement a Bihar-style special intensive revision (SIR) here to sanitise the voter list by removing alleged Rohingya Muslims who, the party claims infiltrated Bengal from Bangladesh to become illegal voters.

The party also issued a caution in its letter to Agarwal, asking him to adhere to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, which states Hindus and members of other non-Muslim faiths from neighbouring countries should not be treated as illegal immigrants.

"We want door-to-door inspection in Bengal. Your (Mamata Banerjee’s) party has changed the demography of the state. Even in Chhattisgarh, Delhi or Haryana, most of those detained with false documents like birth certificates, Aadhaar cards or EPICs got these documents from Bengal," Suvendu Adhikari alleged to reporters after meeting Agarwal.

Fifty BJP MLAs and senior party leader Shishir Bajoria had gone with Adhikari to meet Agarwal.

"While the national average voter growth is seven per cent, in the nine Bangladesh-bordering states, the average is 20–30 per cent, as lakhs of Rohingya Muslims have infiltrated from the neighbouring country. We are not against Indian Muslims — our fight is to remove the Rohingya," Adhikari said.

A BJP source said that while the party wanted a Bihar-style sanitisation of the electoral roll through the SIR, it also sought to safeguard the voting rights of Hindus, including Matua and Rajbanshi communities, who migrated from Bangladesh.

That is why the party requested the EC to conduct the electoral roll sanitisation under the purview of the CAA, 2019, which states that any person belonging to the "Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Persi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st Day of December, 2014, and who has been exempted by the Central Government by or under clause (c) of the subsection (2) of section 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 or from the application of the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 or any rule or order made thereunder, shall not be treated as illegal migrant for the purposes of the Act."

"There are lakhs of Hindus like the Matuas or Rajbanshis, who are traditionally our voters, and we are concerned that their names should not be deleted from the electoral roll under any circumstances. Trinamool will certainly try to remove the names of our voters if such a revision begins here," said the BJP source.

Adhikari also highlighted this concern during his news meet and explained why he referenced the CAA in his letter to CEO Agarwal.

"We told the EC that if the Trinamool-influenced BLOs (booth-level officers) attempt to harass Bengali Hindus, Matuas, Namasudras, or Rajbanshis who came from Bangladesh following religious persecution, we won't tolerate it. The CAA, passed under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, protects people of different faiths, including Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian," said Adhikari.

"After Bihar, if the Election Commission begins a thorough revision of the electoral roll in Bengal, around one crore names of Rohingya Muslims will be deleted from the voter list," Adhikari added.

Trinamool claimed Adhikari's move to approach the EC was mere drama on a day chief minister Mamata Banerjee took to the streets on Wednesday to protest the "torture" of Bengali-speaking Indians in BJP-ruled states. "Bengali-speaking Indians, wrongly dubbed Bangladeshis or the Rohingya, are being tortured in BJP-ruled states. Our question is — why are the Rohingya being detained in BJP-ruled Tripura? It proves the BSF failed to prevent infiltration. Adhikari's move is a drama to distract from the BJP's discomfort over the torture of Bengali-speaking Indians in BJP-ruled states," said Trinamool's Kunal Ghosh.

Adhikari claimed the Rohingya were infiltrating the porous 540km border, as the Bengal government had "failed to give required land" for fencing.