The Trinamool Congress on Saturday trained its fire on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the Taherpur rally in Bengal, accusing him of ignoring the anxieties of the Matua community amid large-scale changes in the state’s electoral rolls.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh alleged that Modi’s address reflected a “lack of concern” for the Matuas, who are facing uncertainty after the publication of the draft electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
“Modi's speech lacked vision and responsibility. He did not address the concerns of the Matuas,” Ghosh told reporters.
The Matuas, a Dalit Hindu refugee community that migrated from Bangladesh over decades following religious persecution, have emerged as a key political constituency in the state.
The first statewide SIR since 2002 has triggered fears over identity and citizenship among voters.
According to Election Commission data, 58,20,898 names have been excluded from the draft rolls, shrinking West Bengal’s electorate from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore.
The data also show around 1.36 crore entries flagged for logical discrepancies and nearly 30 lakh voters marked as unmapped. This takes the number of voters who may be called for hearings to around 1.66 crore.
Leaders of the Matua community across party lines have claimed that a major share of these voters belong to the community.
Ghosh also accused the Prime Minister of avoiding the issue of alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states.
He said Modi “remained silent on the deportation of Indian citizens to Bangladesh by the police force of BJP-ruled states, who could return to their motherland India at the intervention of the judiciary”.
He referred to the case of migrant Sunali Khatun, who returned to India on December 6 after being pushed into Bangladesh in June.
The TMC leader further questioned the Centre’s decision to withhold funds for welfare schemes in the state.
“Modi did not explain why the Centre blocked the funds for central projects for the poor people in Bengal and weaved a false narrative about lack of development in Bengal,” Ghosh said.
He asked why thousands of crores under the 100-day rural employment scheme had been withheld.
“Why has he deprived the poor of building their own houses in rural areas? Why has the drinking water project been stalled by the Centre? The Mamata Banerjee government is mobilising its own resources to run these projects,” he claimed.
Ghosh also blamed “crowd mismanagement at Modi's programme” for the deaths of BJP workers travelling to the rally.
“We are sad over the loss of lives of BJP workers. But had there been proper management on the way to the venue, it could have been avoided,” he said.
Railway authorities confirmed that three people died and three others were injured after being hit by a train amid dense fog on Saturday while travelling to attend Modi’s rally at Taherpur in Nadia district.
TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said public anger was visible even before the Prime Minister’s address. “Modi ji came to know about posters with slogans like 'Narendra Modi go back'. The Matuas are furious with the PM and his party,” he said.
Modi, addressing the rally over the phone from Kolkata, hit back at the ruling party, calling the situation in West Bengal “maha jungle raj”.
He alleged that “corruption, nepotism and appeasement of the ruling dispensation have prevented the ushering of development to its people”.
He urged voters to give the BJP a chance in the 2026 assembly polls to form a “double-engine government” in the state.
The criticism was not limited to the TMC. CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty claimed that Modi had realised that the Matua community was unhappy with both major parties.
He said members of the community are “upset with both the BJP and the TMC for using them as a vote bank while cheating them on the citizenship issue”.
