Reacting to Vijayvargiya’s comment, senior TMC leader and state minister Firhad Hakim stated that the BJP is attempting to fool the folks of West Bengal.
“What does the BJP mean by citizenship? If the Matuas are not citizens, how come they voted in assembly and parliamentary polls year after year? The BJP should stop fooling the people of West Bengal,” he stated.
The Matuas, initially hailing from East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), began migrating to West Bengal in the 1950s, mainly due to religious persecution.
The neighborhood, with an estimated population of 30 lakh in the state, influences benefits in at least 4 Lok Sabha seats and 30-40 assembly constituencies in Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas districts.
A section of state BJP leadership is apprehensive that the delay and confusion more than CAA implementation could possibly turn refugee voters, in particular the Matua neighborhood, against BJP in the 2021 assembly elections due in April-May subsequent year.
The neighborhood had voted hands down in favour of the BJP through the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, celebration sources stated. The CAA seeks to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi refugees who have come to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or just before December 31, 2014.