By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Election Commission of India’s ongoing voter list clean-up drive in Bihar coupled with rounding up of Bengali speaking Muslims by BJP ruled states and locking them up in detention centres or pushing them into Bangladesh at gunpoint has generated a considerable political heat in West Bengal.
TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the BJP led Centre that that voter rolls were tampered with to win elections other states and vowed that it would not be allowed in West Bengal. “They deleted 35.5 lakh voters in Bihar. They did the same thing in Maharashtra and Delhi and won. Now they are trying the same thing in Bengal and Bihar. We will not allow this in Bengal,” she vowed in a rally in Kolkata on July 16, 2025.
West Bengal BJP has not only criticised CM Mamata’s march and rally, but also alleged that it was an attempt by TMC for “legitimisation of illegal immigrants.” The leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha, the BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari also took out a counter-march to the office of the state chief electoral officer with about 40 BJP MLAs and demanded that Bengal’s voter rolls be cleared of Rohingya and Bangladeshi infiltrators.
Election in West Bengal will be held before May 7, 2026, when the term of its Vidhan Sabha is to expire, and the Election Commission of India (ECI) has already announced that Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Roll will not only be conducted in Bihar but also across the country. Mamata has accused ECI of pushing BJP’s agenda and alleged tampering of the voter rolls.
From the power corridors in Delhi to the streets in West Bengal, everyone believes that after Bihar, PM Narendra Modi’s political target is West Bengal. The statements made by Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari also show this belief.
As politics in Bengal goes, Mamata Banerjee has made the Bengali pride an issue. She has claimed that her government has compiled a list of about 1,000 migrant workers from the state who were detained or thrown in lock-up and detention camps in various states for “speaking in their mother tongue.” She said, “We are in the process of identifying the exact number of people they have forcibly pushed back to Bangladesh”.
It would not be out of place to mention here that several Bengali speaking Muslims of West Bengal, who were sent to Bangladesh, had to be repatriated to India after intervention of the West Bengal government.
“What right does the BJP have in harassing Bengalis like this, even arresting them and forcefully pushing them back to Bangladesh? Is West Bengal not part of India?” Mamata questioned. Why are you (BJP) disturbing Bengalis? What did they do? If you think you will disturb Bengal, then I will travel across the country.”
Mamata has asserted that there are 22 lakh migrant workers from West Bengal working in other parts of the country. They have valid identity documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards. Even then the BJP governments at the centre and in the states are apprehending them and sending to detention centres and pushing them into Bangladesh. She would not tolerate any disrespect meted out to them on flimsy ground, she threatened.
Warning the BJP she said, “If you keep Bengalis in detention camps, then the people of Bengal will send you to a political detention camp,” adding, “The BJP is basically anti-poor. They call Bengali workers for their expertise, and then they detain and send them to detention camps. We can’t accept such atrocities on Bengalis.”
Mamata said that the prevailing situation is “more than emergency”, adding, “In February this year, they (the Central government) secretly issued a notification, where it was mentioned “anyone found suspicious should be put in detention centres” in order to detain Bangladesh migrants”. She further said, “We will challenge the central government’s notice. It is illegal detention.” She has also given a call to migrant Bengalis, “Skip work, gent name on voter list.”
CM Mamata seems to have launched her election campaign. She pitched for Bengali identity politics in the state even in a gathering on July 17, and alleged that BJP’s claims are wild. “How can someone be branded as Bangladeshi or Rohingya just for speaking in Bengali?” she asked. She has also alleged that there is a ploy to omit the names of 17 lakh voters from the electoral roll of West Bengal. “We will not let it happen,” she vowed.
CPI(M) has also come out against targeting of Bengali speaking people by BJP. CPI(M) West Bengal secretary Mohammed Salim has said, “Bengali-speaking migrant workers are being targeted in several states, including the national capital.” The party on July 17 has demanded that CM Mamata Banerjee send delegations of TMC MPs to those states to address the issue.
RSS-BJP on the other hand has been running intensive political campaign based on Hindutva. They are continuously raising the issue of illegal Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators in the state. All these show that the Politics in West Bengal seems to be heading towards a battle between the Hindutva Bengali identity. (IPA Service)
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