CAA rules notified, why it is a key part of BJP plan to consolidate Matua votes in Bengal, undo 2021 damage

In the complicated terrain of West Bengal politics, the Matua community has increasingly become assertive over the past couple of decades. It is now a crucial vote bank that parties with the ambition of doing well in the state vie to keep on their side. With the Union government notifying the Citizenship Amendment Act rules, the BJP hopes to ensure that the Matuas stay with it, unlike the2021 Assembly elections, and help it build on the gains made five years ago.

The Matuas are a religious group of Namasudras, or Dalits, who migrated to India in large numbers during Partition and later in 1971 during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Most of them live in the state’s North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts while a sizable chunk also live in the districts of Purba Bardhaman, South 24 Parganas, and Cooch Behar. Due to the circumstances of their migration, most of them never formally received Indian citizenship.

As a result, the political assertion of the Matuas, led by the Thakur family, took the form of attempts to increase the community’s representation in political parties and government, and ensure those who do not have citizenship papers receive them. This is why the Matuas are among the biggest supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act. They had been pushing for its operationalisation ever since Parliament approved the law in December 2019.

The Matua electorate, according to some estimates, is around 1.75 crore and is a crucial factor in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Bangaon, Barasat, Ranaghat, Krishnanagar, and Cooch Behar. Of these, Bangaon, Ranaghat, and Cooch Behar are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and all three went to the BJP in 2019 while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won Barasat and Krishnanagar.

The BJP’s