BJP national president Nitin Nabin said on Monday that if the party won power in Bengal, the subdivisional town of Islampur in North Dinajpur district would be renamed as “Ishwarpur”.

The district has around 50 per cent Muslims.

“The people here should vote for us so that we can rename Islampur, which was once a part of Bihar, as Ishwarpur. In Bengal, a BJP government is needed as the Mamata Banerjee government is patronising Bangladeshi infiltrators, which is an issue of national security,” Nabin told a public meeting in Islampur, organised as part of the statewide Parivartan Yatra by the BJP.

In North Dinajpur, the BJP won the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and 2024. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the party won two seats in the district, while the remaining seven went to the Trinamool Congress.

“When the Centre seeks land for barbed wire fencing to secure Bengal and the country as a whole, the state government refuses approval. Instead, infiltrators crossing the border are provided with different documents. When efforts are made to identify and expel nearly 50 lakh illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, the chief minister appears in the Supreme Court and stages protests. She does not want Bengal or the country to remain secure,” said the BJP president.

He accused the Mamata Banerjee government of gross misgovernance and corruption and said beneficiaries of social welfare schemes had to pay “hafta tax” to access the benefits, and claimed that Trinamool turned Bengal into a “commission-driven state”.

“A government of deception is running in Bengal. After coming to power with the common people's votes, Trinamool has been betraying them for the past 15 years. They (Trinamool) raise slogans of ‘Maa, Mati, Manush,’ but no woman in the state feels safe. Even in educational institutions, women are facing harassment. The government has completely failed to ensure their safety,” said Nabin.

Political observers have said that Nabin has followed the traditional line of his party, which is to play the religious card to draw votes.

“As the elections draw near, BJP leaders will play the polarisation card consistently, especially in districts with a steady concentration of the minority community. It is a well-tested strategy of the party to secure votes on religious lines,” said an observer.