Over 10 days have passed since the Centre's March 11 notification on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules but the Matuas of Bengal, who were once the most vocal supporters of the CAA, have not yet applied for "citizenship" through the portal created for the purpose.

Insiders said that Section 5 of the provisions, which demands proof of prior residence in Bangladesh, was the main hurdle.

Since the Act was passed in December 2019, the Matuas of Bengal had been demanding its rollout. Nadia and North 24-Parganas, the districts with the highest concentration of the sect, celebrated the notification of CAA rules on March 11 with great pomp.

However, many in the BJP faction of the All India Matua Mahasangha told this newspaper that they were not aware of any applicant in the two districts.

"We are not aware of anyone who has filed his or her application.... It is unlikely that anyone will anytime soon owing to misgivings about the process," said a source.

Key faces of the Matua community — downtrodden Hindu migrants from Bangladesh — said Section 5 of the online application process was the biggest stumbling block.

Section 5 seeks documentary evidences from the applicant as proof of their origin or prior stay in Bangladesh.

Since moving forward with the application process is not possible without filling up the details under Section 5, several potential applicants quit midway.

Amid the despair and anger in the community over the application filing process, the BJP faction of the Matuas, headed by local MP Shantanu Thakur, has urged the Centre to launch more simplified provisions to file applications.

"If the Centre fails to act immediately it will be a disaster and the BJP will realise the impact of this in the Lok Sabha polls," a senior leader of Mahasangha close to Thakur said.

"Many Matuas want to submit their citizenship application. But Section 5 of the application is the main hurdle.... Most of these people ran away from Bangladesh under duress. So they don't have documents like passport, land document, birth certificate or job certificate to prove that the applicant had been in Bangladesh," Mahitosh Baidya, the general secretary of the pro-BJP faction, told The Telegraph.

"The Centre should incorporate an option in the online application process so that applicant can bypass the section or attach an affidavit or referral certificate," he added.

Many pro-BJP Matua leaders in Nadia and North 24-Parganas ruled out the possibility of an immediate change to the rules and advised community members to wait till the polls were over.

However, the thorny ground realities of the CAA rules have become worrying for the party, which wooed the Matuas with the "citizenship" carrot and won the Matua-dominated Lok Sabha seats of Bongaon in North 24-Parganas and Ranaghat in Nadia in the 2019 general election, months before the CAA was passed in Parliament.

The CAA factor helped the BJP win four of seven Assembly segments in Bongaon and all seven in Ranaghat in the 2021 Bengal polls despite the Mamata wave.

Baidya said: "If the (application) problem is not sorted out fast, the BJP may suffer a setback in the Matua belt." The recent suicide of a 37-year-old Calcuttan, allegedly over CAA fears, has compounded the problems, he added.

Satam Modok, a leader of the pro-Trinamul faction of Mahasangha headed by Rajya Sabha member Mamatabala Thakur, said: "People are realising that the BJP has bluffed them...."

Mamatabala said: "The CAA notification is a trap. Our demand is unconditional citizenship, which means no application process."