BJP Bengal chief Sukanta Majumdar on Thursday reassured Matuas that they would be given citizenship before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, apparently to pacify the community restless at the delay in the implementation of the citizen matrix.
At a BJP rally in Bongaon on Thursday, the Balurghat MP said: “Ami apanader aswasto kortec chai….24 er agei Matuara nagorikatta pabey... Mukhyamantri chaileo atkatey parbey na (I want to assure you that the Matuas will get citizenship before 2024. Even if she wants, the chief minister can’t stop it).”
The reassurance of “citizenship” was made a day after Mamata Banerjee told a rally in Nadia’s Krishnagar that the saffron party used the CAA to exploit Matua emotions.
On Thursday, Bengal BJP asserted the party’s pledge to roll out CAA in the state.
“The citizenship commitment is like the Ram temple issue in Ayodhya. The BJP didn’t make any compromise with it.... Don’t lose faith,” Majumdar said in Bongaon.
Matua community leader and Union minister Shantanu Thakur and his brother Subrata, a BJP MLA, were absent. BJP sources said the brothers were “out of town”.
Majumdar also accused Mamata of misleading the Matuas.