Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said the Matuas were very much citizens of India and nobody could drive them out of the country, her assertion coming at a time some BJP leaders said that the process to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, which they claimed would help the Matuas, was likely to begin soon.

“Many people had come from Bangladesh as refugees...we have accepted you all. This is not just our home…This is your home too...You need no new certificate to stay here. Because you are all citizens. You are being cheated with the offer of citizenship through the CAA,” Mamata said at a rally in Gopannagar near Bongaon.

The chief minister stayed firm on her stand against the new citizenship matrix. “There will be no CAA...No NRC. It is a ploy of the BJP to push the Bengalis out of Bengal to make it Gujarat,” Mamata said.

“If the CAA is allowed to be implemented, they will ask you for your grandmother’s age, grandfather’s date of birth...Will you be able to submit all these?” she asked, adding that the state government had already ensured their rights as citizens by recognising refugee colonies.

“The recognition of the colonies by the state government made you a citizen of this country naturally. So you do not need to be at the mercy of anybody for any new citizenship certificate...Nobody can evict you from here, ” she said.

Of over 60,000 people who attended the rally at Gopalnagar Haripada Institution Ground, most were from the Matua community, lower caste Hindus who had fled Bangladesh.

Wednesday’s rally was significant as Mamata managed to bring together 23 Matua community organisations, and accept their demands, including a state holiday on the birth anniversary of Harichand Thakur, who had formed the sect, and inclusion of only people from the community in the Matua Development Board.

Mamata tried to contrast how she delivered on her promises while the BJP only gave “false assurances”.

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. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won in two Matua dominated seats, Bongaon and Ranaghat, coming as a big blow to Mamata and her party.

Sources in Trinamul said Mamata was aware that discontent against the BJP was brewing among the Matuas as the CAA remained on paper with the Centre yet to frame the rules. Some BJP leaders like the party’s Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya said recently that the act would be implemented from January.

Later, Narottam Biswas, chief organiser of the Hari Gurchandh Bhakta Matua Mahasangha, said: “Mamata Banerjee is the only one to fight for the citizenship for the Matuas. The CAA cannot be accepted in its present form. It must be simplified unless withdrawn.”