West Bengal BJP urges Bangladeshi Hindu refugees to apply for citizenship under CAA ahead of 2026 polls

Leaders of the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday, October 25, 2025, urged ‘refugees of religious persecution’ from Bangladesh to apply for Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), claiming that their names will appear in the State’s voter list.

Leader of Opposition said, “We request Bangladeshi Hindu refugees to get registered in CAA camps. In the name of BJP and Rashtravadi Vichar Parivar, various camps are being organized with computers, printers and laptops. Please visit these camps, contact BJP mandals. Multiple relief camps are going on in each mandal. Please apply, government of India and West Bengal BJP are with you will be.” West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari said in a statement on Saturday.

He also declared that Bangladeshi Hindus who entered West Bengal due to religious persecution were “not infiltrators but refugees”.

“About 14,000 people have applied for CAA so far. None of them have lost their jobs or stopped receiving any welfare benefits from the Center or the State. They have not faced any problems… This is the assurance and demand of LoP that if you apply for CAA as soon as possible, your name will be in the voter list,” Mr. Adhikari added.

CAA is a citizenship law that allows persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan who entered India on or before 31.12.2014 to apply for Indian citizenship under a special provision, according to the Indian Citizenship Online Portal of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Notably, the Immigration and Aliens (Exemption) Order, 2025 also had provisions for persons belonging to the same communities who entered India due to religious persecution before December 31, 2024.

The BJP is set to hold more than 700 CAA camps across the State ahead of the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of State electoral rolls and Assembly polls in 2026. In West Bengal, the Matua community in particular is expected to benefit greatly from the CAA and is considered a strong vote bank for the BJP.

‘Don’t be afraid, sir’

Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar and Mr. Adhikari held a joint rally at Gangarampur in Dakshin Dinajpur district on Saturday. During the rally, Mr. Majumdar said people of West Bengal whose names or their parents’ names appeared in the 2002 voter list “need not fear SIR” and urged Hindu foreigners to apply for citizenship under the provisions of the CAA.

“If your name or your parents’ names are not included in the 2002 list, you belong to one of the two categories… If you are Hindu and Bangladeshi, we have made arrangements for you to become an Indian citizen under the CAA,” Mr. Majumdar said.

He added that the party’s 2026 struggle is an “aar-paar” (both sides of the border) struggle. This statement is significant in the light of the sharp distinction made by the saffron party between ‘infiltrators’ and ‘refugees’ from neighboring countries in the context of voter list revision and CAA camps respectively.

This development comes after BJP State President Samik Bhattacharya’s social media post on Friday in which he accused the West Bengal government of delaying birth registrations in government hospitals in border areas. For reference, birth certificates are considered a very important document in proving one’s eligibility during voter list revision.