Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday that “all of Bengal” should “support a BJP government” to ensure that infiltrators are not allowed to step into Indian territory, marking his party’s first overt reference on the Nandigram campaign trail to the controversial citizenship matrix that feeds into the party’s polarisation agenda.

Shah, who on Tuesday morning held a road show in Nandigram’s Reyapara, held a news conference at party candidate Suvendu Adhikari’s election office, making it clear through his comments that Adhikari’s divisive agenda for the April 1 vote had his backing.

“This is not a battle for Nandigram alone, this is a battle for all of Bengal. All of Bengal should support a BJP government. All of Bengal wants infiltration to stop. All of Bengal wants that refugees get citizenship via the CAA, they want development, progress, employment for their youth and good education and infrastructure, for Calcutta to become a global city again and for the culture of Bengal to spread all over the world again,” Shah said.

Although Shah did not elaborate further on the CAA during his four-minute speech, his juxtaposition of refugees and infiltrators — a topic he had dwelt on at a rally in Assam days earlier —suggested he was adding to the polarisation debate that Suvendu has stoked in his recent campaign speeches.

Adhikari has pulled no punches in his attempts to polarise the electorate, targeting the minority community and making it clear that he was reaching out to the “70 per cent majority” among Nandigram’s 2.65 lakh voters.

During his news conference, Shah also criticised chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has fielded herself from Nandigram, over the alleged rape of a woman in the area earlier in the day.

“I have been informed that 5km from Mamata Didi’s local residence, a woman was raped. Now I want to ask her, if the perpetrators are able to act within 5km of your residence when you are in Nandigram, then what will happen to the larger issue of women’s safety in Bengal?” Shah asked.

The Union home minister signed off by referring to the CAA.

Shah said that the party’s victory in the constituency by a “huge margin” was imperative to bring “change” to all of Bengal.

Sources said Shah’s roadshow earlier in the day was attended by over 10,000 people. The 1.5km road from Reyapara bridge to Shibmandir was decked with saffron cloth, bouquets and banners, an elaborate arrangement reportedly overseen by a BJP team from Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking about the event later in the day at a rally in Tengua, Mamata alleged that Shah’s road show had been attended by “outsiders”.

“They have no support here, so they have called in outsiders to attend the road show,” the chief minister said.