Centre’s delay in rolling out the Citizenship Amendment Act has given the All India Matua Mahasangh, which is led by BJP MP Santanu Thakur, an opportunity to pile pressure on the BJP and ask Union home minister Amit Shah to field at least 30 Matua candidates in the districts of North 24-Parganas and Nadia in the Assembly polls.

Shah will be in Thakurnagar on Thursday.

“We will ask Amit Shah to field Matua candidates in Assembly segments where our community dominates the electorate. There are almost 80 Assembly seats that have a large Matua presence but in at least 30 of those seats in North 24-Parganas and Nadia, we constitute over 60 per cent of the electorate. In these 30 seats ,we will demand that the BJP nominate candidates from the Matua community,” said a senior leader of the Mahasangh.

The Mahasangh leadership will place the demand before Shah when he will briefly visit the Thakurbari in North 24-Parganas to pay tribute to community gurus Harichand and Guruchand Thakur and to Baro Maa Binapani Devi before a public meeting scheduled to begin at 3.30pm on Thursday, the senior leader said.

The Mahasangh’s demand to field Matuas on 30 seats is likely to put the BJP in a fix and the party will have to deal with the issue cautiously because alienating the community can prove to be major hurdle to achieving its goal to rule Bengal.

The Matuas have already demonstrated signs of restlessness over the delay in framing and implementing the CAA rules and the BJP leadership in Bengal is aware that any slip on their part will be utilised by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who said several times that she would not allow implementation of the citizenship matrix in Bengal.

The Matuas expect Shah to speak on the CAA rollout and clear the confusion that has set in after the home ministry recently got a fresh extension of deadline to frame the rules.

The reigning confusion within the community has emerged as a challenge for the Mahasangh that seeks to ensure its bargaining power within the legislative domain and assuage sentiments of its members by making the BJP field Matuas on 30 seats.

“It has become very important for us to get our own men elected so that they can raise our issues. Since Independence, we have been left at the mercy of other communities who have seldom taken up our cause,” said a leader close to Mahasangh chief Santanu.

Although Santanu refused to confirm the possibility of discussing the demand of fielding Matuas in the coming polls with Shah, the MP said he would be happy if community members entered electoral politics.

A Mahasangh leader said raising the demand had become a “necessity” for Santanu’s political existence.

“With the Centre delaying the CAA roll-out, it has become very tough for us to keep the support base intact. With Trinamul launching an aggressive campaign to woo back the community, it will be tough for Santanu to survive without bargaining for greater political power,” the Mahasangh leader added.

BJP’s Bongaon organising district president Debdas Mondal said: “I am aware of such demand being raised by a section of the Mahasangh. However, the decision to nominate the Matua community members solely rests with the BJP’s top leadership and we have nothing to say on it.”

The Trinamul leadership has ridiculed the Mahasangh over the demand to field Matuas in the polls.

“It is another ploy of Santanu Thakur and his aides to lure the Matuas after BJP’s citizenship promise turned out to be fake. People will give a befitting reply to the BJP and Santanu Thakur for cheating the people,” said Trinamul leader Gopal Seth.