Mamata will not get Matua votes, Suvendu claims after TMC rally

West Bengal Assembly Leader of Opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Suvendu Adhikari on Monday said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee “will not take the Matua Namashudra vote”, a few hours after Ms Banerjee led a rally at Matua headquarters in North 24 Parganas opposing the Special Massive Revision of the state’s voter list.

Addressing a BJP rally in West Bengal’s Birbhum, Mr. Adhikari said, “Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur founded the Matua community to preserve Sanatana dharma under the pressure of religious conversion. The ongoing struggle of Matua after 1945 ended in 2019 when Prime Minister Modi came to Thakurnagar and promised citizenship rights to Bangladeshi Hindu refugees who had come here to escape religious persecution.”

The Matua sect of Namashudra Hindus was founded in Orakandi in present-day Bangladesh in the late 19th century. Since 1947, the Matu people migrated from Bangladesh and settled in West Bengal, mostly in the border areas such as North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Howrah, Cooch Behar and Malda.

In 2019, the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which facilitated citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants from neighboring countries, created ripples within the community and saw Shantanu Thakur of the BJP’s Matua sect win the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat in both 2019 and 2024.

Currently, the BJP is running hundreds of ‘CAA camps’ in these areas during the ongoing SIR and encouraging Matuas and other Bangladeshi Hindu refugees to apply for citizenship under the CAA to eventually be included in West Bengal’s voter lists. Conversely, at the anti-SIR rally held on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, the Prime Minister warned Matua voters that they would be falsely disqualified from voting by declaring themselves foreigners under the CAA.

“500 certificates have been issued under CAA in the last three days. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are there for Hindu refugees… [Mamata Banerjee] They should have sought forgiveness from the Matua community for opposing the CAA and civil rights,” Mr. Adhikari said.

‘West Bengal Police advances Trinamool agenda’

Mr. Adhikari also wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, accusing the State police authorities of being loyal to the Trinamool and demanding deployment of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) “to ensure impartiality” in the upcoming Assembly elections in 2026.

The LoP cited examples from the “Second State Conference on Women Police Personnel” reportedly held by the West Bengal Police Welfare Committee at Digha in Purba Medinipur district on November 22, 2025; The LoP claimed that several senior police officers had voiced their support for Ms. Banerjee’s fourth term as Prime Minister after the 2026 elections.

“More than 1,000 police personnel from both Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police and 1,000 other plainclothes police volunteers are actively involved in political work for the TMC Party under the banner of this so-called Welfare Committee. These members are directly involved with the TMC by attending political rallies like ‘Sahid Dibas’ by wearing TMC t-shirts, holding press conferences on behalf of the party and even coaching their family members on behalf of the party. In his letter, Mr. Adhikari said that the police personnel are partisans.” He claimed that he was carrying out media activities.

He also accused the West Bengal Police Welfare Committee of disrupting the stands, cheating, threatening and intimidating Opposition party cadres and police personnel who did not want to engage in such activities.

In his letter, Mr. Adhikari encouraged the Chief Election Commissioner to “initiate a comprehensive investigation into the activities of the West Bengal Police Welfare Committee and its links with the TMC, including the role of serving officers in partisan incidents.” He also demanded that police officers involved in ‘partisan activities’ be suspended from duty and disciplined.

Trinamool Congress spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said, “While a serving officer cannot make political statements, the police have the right to operate as a federation or union. Therefore, speeches made by the Police Welfare Committee at an event should not concern Mr. Adhikari. Secondly, he is throwing stones from inside a glass house. These accusations should not be made by a party that politicizes the Indian Army.” Hindu.