BJP’s Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya said on Sunday that the Centre might implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act from next month to confer citizenship on a large section of refugees living in Bengal.

“Most probably, from January, the process of providing citizenship would begin,” he told journalists here amid increasing discontent within certain sections deemed pro-BJP over the delay in the law’s implementation.

“The Centre has honest intentions on the citizenship issue and introduced the act to help the religiously persecuted people (although only from India’s Muslim-majority neighbours) take refuge in our country. But the Trinamul Congress and some other parties have been misleading the people,” said Vijayvargiya.

Members of the Matua community — deemed to have sided with the BJP in the general election last year — welcomed the announcement.

“This is a great move. The Matuas have been eagerly waiting for its implementation and a permanent settlement of their citizenship issue for a long time,” said the BJP’s Bongaon MP and All India Matua Mahasangha chief Santanu Thakur.

Nadda visit

Sources in the BJP said its national president J.P. Nadda would arrive in Calcutta on December 9, instead of December 8.

Nadda would participate in an outreach programme in the Bhowanipore Assembly constituency represented by chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

He will also visit the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency represented by her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.