The BJP’s Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya on Saturday called on the Thakurnagar home of party MP and All India Matua Mahasangh chief Santanu Thakur, who has been voicing the community’s discontent over the Centre’s delay in implementing the citizenship law.

During Vijayvargiya’s visit in the backdrop of Amit Shah’s proposed visit to Bengal on December 19, Thakur demanded the Union home minister visit the Matua turf to announce implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

“We have...requested Kailashji to convince Amit Shahji to visit Thakurnagar…There is tremendous pressure on us over the CAA… We are hopeful that the BJP leadership knows it well and Amit Shahji comes here to make the announcement (of its implementation). We have reiterated these points to Kalashji,” Santanu told the media after the meeting.

Sources in the BJP said Vijayvargiya went all the way to Thakurnagar to meet the Mahasangh leaders and Thakur as the party was worried over the restlessness of Matuas over the delay in implementing the citizenship law.

Speaking to the reporters, Vijayvargiya refuted claims that Thakur was annoyed with the party leadership about the delay. “He is a BJP MP and held a meeting with the home minister a few days ago. The CAA will be implemented by January or February next year,” he said.

Vijayvargiya arrived at Thakurnagar around 1pm and held talks with leaders of the Matua Mahasangh and lunched with them before leaving.

The visit of BJP’s Bengal minder to Thakurnagar also comes close on the heels of Mamata Banerjee’s December 9 rally in Gopalnagar where the chief minister announced that Matuas were Indian citizens and did not need CAA. She also vouched not to allow implementation of the CAA in the state, while announcing a slew of measures to win over the Matuas.

The sudden move of Mamata has left the BJP jittery as the Matuas had largely been Trinamul supporters since the change of guard in Bengal, but the BJP had since managed to make solid inroads in the community by playing the citizenship card.

To counter Mamata’s renewed effort to woo Matuas and her staunch opposition to the citizenship law, the BJP wants to use Shah’s visit as the votes of the Namashudra community would decide winners on quite a few seats in next year's Assembly polls.

A source in the Mahasangh said one more reason for Vijayvargiya’s visit to Thakurnagar was to personally convince Santanu that the law would eventually be implemented. The source added that even after Saturday’s meeting Subrata doesn’t appear to be convinced.

“We have learnt that the Centre is planning to implement the Citizenship Act very soon. But we will be happy if Amit Shahji visits Thakurnagar by January and makes an announcement about its implementation from here,” Santanu said.

BJP insiders said efforts were on to ensure that Shah visited Thakurbari to make the announcement as it was crucial to win the support of the Matuas largely spread over North 24-Parganas and Nadia and a few districts in north and south Bengal.