Krishna Kirtania, a resident of North 24-Parganas’ Gaighata, is unsure about whom to vote.
A member of the Matua community, Krishna had voted the BJP like most others in his community in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Early on Sunday, Krishna visited Thakurbari, the headquarters of the Matua sect in North 24-Parganas’ Thakurnagar, in search of clarity.
He spoke through the day with both factions of the Thakur family one owing allegiance to Trinamul and the other to the BJP. The members of the family are direct descendants of Harichand Thakur, the founder of the Matua sect. The area votes on April 22.
Swapan Majumder on the campaign trail.
Bongaon South is one of 68 assembly constituencies in Bengal that are reserved for the Scheduled Castes. The majority of the voters are Matua Namasudra Dalits who trace their ancestry to what was once East Bengal. Most came over during Partition and after the formation of Bangladesh, fleeing religious persecution. There is no official data, but they are estimated to number nearly one crore across the state. Many arenât citizens yet, so the BJP is doling out the promise of citizenship to win them over.
The Hindutva party has fielded Swapan Majumder, an associate of BJP MP and All India Matua Mahasangha president Shantanu Thakur, to take on Alo Rani Sarkar of the Trinamool Congress. Sarkar is a BJP turncoat.
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Thakurnagar: The road to the town Thakurnagar, via Habra and Bongaon South constituencies, in West Bengal’s North 24 Paragana district is dotted with congested localities, mostly unregulated refugee colonies and markets.
But this town, which is the headquarters of the Hindu minority community Matuas, has been a battleground between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress.
For the next two weeks, Thakurnagar will see major public shows by the BJP vying for the crucial votes of the Matuas who came to the state as refugees during partition.
Besides being electorally significant, the Matuas have also been part of the state’s politics over the years. Currently, it has a BJP camp and a Trinamool camp. The BJP camp, which makes up for a significant part of the community, has a primary demand citizenship.