The proposed “courtesy meeting” between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and newly appointed Bangladesh High Commissioner M. Riaz Hamidullah, scheduled for Monday, is all set to open a new front in the political battle between the Trinamul Congress and the BJP.

The event — Mamata’s meeting with a Bangladeshi envoy in nearly nine years — comes amid recent allegations that the BSF has been deporting Bengali-speaking migrant workers, particularly Muslims, to Bangladesh, treating them as infiltrators.

Following instructions from the Union home ministry to identify Bangladeshi infiltrators in all Indian states, the BSF initiated a process of pushing back individuals suspected of being Bangladeshi nationals, especially those with fake Indian documents.

However, this move recently faced severe backlash from the Bengal government when least seven migrant workers from the state, who were initially apprehended in Maharashtra, were deported to Bangladesh by the BSF despite being Indian citizens. They have since been repatriated.

This development became a political embarrassment for the BJP, especially after Mamata Banerjee, speaking in the Bengal Assembly, accused the Narendra Modi government of targeting people from her state simply because they speak Bengali.

Sources indicate that Mamata is likely raise the issue of alleged illegal deportations during her meeting with Hamidullah, who is the first representative of the Muhammed Yunus-led Bangladesh government to meet with the Bengal chief minister.

BJP leaders alleged that the meeting revolves around the “common interests” of Mamata Banerjee and the Bangladesh government, whose joint intention is to resist the Modi government’s efforts to deport Bangladeshi infiltrators — a group the BJP claims forms a significant part of the Trinamool Congress’s vote bank.

“It is being said that he (Hamidullah) may seek the chief minister’s help regarding the ongoing deportation of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators from across India. We suspect that following this visit, Mamata Banerjee will begin to oppose the country’s immigration policies,” BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay wrote on social media on Sunday morning.

He also alleged that although Hamidullah is a foreign service officer, he is close to the Jamaat.

“She (Mamata) may say that Bangladeshis cannot be sent back to Dhaka. She will speak up for the illegal infiltrators who make up a significant part of Trinamool’s vote bank,” Chattopadhyay added, referring to Mamata Banerjee’s 2013 meeting with the then Pakistan High Commissioner Salman Bashir.

Multiple BJP sources said the proposed meeting between Mamata and Hamidullah has given them a new political weapon to portray the Bengal chief minister as being too close to Bangladesh, especially at a time when the saffron camp has been pushing a narrative comparing Bengal’s situation with that of Bangladesh — particularly after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government last August.

“Within three weeks of Hamidullah formally presenting his credentials to President Droupadi Murmu, his first priority was to meet Mamata Banerjee. The people of Bengal will surely recognise this alignment,” said Chattopadhyay.

TMC leaders countered that the BJP is attempting to propagate a false narrative at a time when the Union government has been exposed for its plans to deport Bengali-speaking Indian citizens to Bangladesh.

“Already seven Indian citizens from Bengal, who were wrongly deported to Bangladesh, have been repatriated after our protest. Their plan is to harass and push Bengali-speaking people into Bangladesh because of their hate towards Bengal,” said TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.

“If they talk about infiltration, they must explain why such incidents are also occurring in BJP-ruled Assam. It is the BSF that failed to prevent them,” Ghosh said.

He also accused the BJP of making baseless claims without even knowing the subject of the meeting.

A senior TMC leader pointed out that such meetings cannot take place without the consent of the Union government, as a High Commissioner of a foreign country meeting an Indian state’s chief minister requires clearance.

Apart from the political row, multiple sources in the Bengal government said the meeting holds significance for other reasons as well.

Mamata, who earlier expressed anguish at the alleged vandalism at Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral home in Bangladesh’s Sirajganj, may also bring up this matter, seeking an explanation from the envoy.

A large number of Bangladeshi nationals are currently facing difficulties in visiting Calcutta and other parts of Bengal due to the Indian government’s decision to restrict visas after the recent unrest in Bangladesh.

“Bengal shares a 2,217km international border with Bangladesh. So, it is important for the Bangladesh envoy to meet the chief minister of the state,” said a senior state government official.