PM woos Matua community, vows fast track to citizenship

NEW DELHI: In a bid to strengthen the BJP’s outreach to the Matua community in the final phase of Bengal polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday offered prayers at the Matua Thakur temple in North 24 Parganas and reiterated the government’s resolve to fast-track Indian citizenship for its members at a public meeting.The sect, founded in Orakandi (now in Bangladesh), has influence in more than 32 parliamentary seats, most of which will go to polls in the second phase on April 29. Modi highlighted his ties to the sect in a message, posting a photo of a 2019 meeting with the sect’s leader Binapani Thakur.Matuas’ heartfelt support for the BJP was crucial to its stellar performance in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and subsequent emergence as the TMC’s main challenger in the 2021 Assembly elections, but things have cooled down a bit as Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee intensifies efforts to woo her party members, and the approval of the much-touted Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was not all plain sailing. As originally thought, grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees.The TMC has long claimed that the CAA would end up harming Matuas by entangling them in a web of documents that could be traced back to Bangladesh, when most of them actually already enjoy multiple rights in India. The party groomed its leadership from the community to weaken the BJP’s support base.Amid these polls, there has been a strong focus on the community at the top of the BJP, with Modi visiting temples and holding a meeting at its stronghold. Modi also visited Orakandi in 2021 and is generally highly respected by his members.While the Prime Minister at Sunday’s rally asked Matuas and other Hindu refugees from Bangladesh to ignore the TMC’s claims, Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP activists have been stressing the party’s commitment to their welfare.