Bengal elections: Poll verdict in Matua bastions crucial for BJP before CAA implementation
Assembly seats in the Matua strongholds of Bongaon and Krishnanagar, close to the India-Bangladesh border, are set to go to polls in the sixth phase of elections, on April 22.
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Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP State President Dilip Ghosh seen eating lunch with a Matua family at their residence at Gouanganagar in Kolkata. (File Photo | PTI) By PTI
BONGAON/KRISHNANAGAR: With citizenship for refugees having emerged as one of the poll planks of the BJP in its battle for Bengal, Matua bastions and the verdict they present this election will prove to be a test case for the party that had been weighing the pros and cons before implementing a new law enacted for the purpose.
Matua voters are expected to play the pivotal role in today s sixth phase of the West Bengal assembly polls for both India ruler Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The 43 Assembly seats spread across four districts North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Purba Bardhaman and North Dinajpur – are home to most of the 1.5 crore Matua voters. Around 3.5 crore Matua people live across the WB.
Matua, a sect of folk Hinduists, who are Namasudras a scheduled caste group, left the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) after the 1947 partition and migrated to West Bengal and was scattered mainly across three bordering districts with Bangladesh, with the exception of Purba Bardhaman.
Two West Bengal districts hold key to TMC s return to power
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Last Updated: Apr 05, 2021, 05:46 PM IST
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Synopsis
The TMC had swept both the districts in 2011 and 2016 and had successfully cemented the foundation of the Mamata Banerjee camp in the state. In 2016, the party had bagged 27 of the 33 seats in North 24 Parganas, and all but two seats in the minority-dominated South-24 Parganas.
PTI
With the BJP seeking to breach TMC fortresses in Bengal, two of the biggest districts North and South 24 Parganas seem to hold the key in the state s action-packed electoral battle.
Together, the two districts send 64 representatives to the 294-member assembly North-24 Parganas having 33 seats and South-24 Parganas 31.
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