News Analysis India

Tag: Matua

  • Santanu Thakur: An influential Matua community leader from Bengal

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: It was a family feud that brought Shantanu Thakur into politics and now he is one of the most influential leaders of the politically-crucial Matua community of West Bengal.

    Thirty-eight-year-old Shantanu Thakur, Lok Sabha member from Bongoan parliamentary seat who was sworn in as a union minister this evening, is one of the heir apparents of the influential Thakurbari a socio-religious sect formed by his ancestors Harichand-Guruchand Thakur- for the uplift of the Matuas, the second-largest scheduled caste community of the state.

    A graduate by education, Shantanu Thakur, the eldest son of former TMC minister Manjul Krishna Thakur, was more into the development of the Matuas through various social services run by the Thakurbari in Thakurnagar and was never into politics.

    Matuas, with their sheer size of the population and tendency to vote en bloc, just like the minorities, make for an enviable vote bank that all the political parties had tried to secure since the nineties.

    TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had first reached out to the Matuas around a decade ago.

    She nominated Manjul Thakur as a candidate in 2011 and inducted him in her ministry as a minister of state.

    In 2014, Manjul’s elder brother Kapil Krishna Thakur was nominated as a TMC candidate from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat, which he had won hands down.

    But it was the sudden death of Kapil Krishna in October 2014 that kick-started the family feud between his widow Mamata Bala Thakur and his brother-in-law Manjul Krishna.

    Manjul wanted his youngest son Subrata Thakur to be nominated by the party for the by-election from the Bongaon seat, but the party leadership instead decided to nominate Mamata Bala.

    An infuriated Manjul Krishna quit the state cabinet to join the BJP and got Subrata, a party ticket to contest from the seat in February 2015, but he came third.

    Although Manjul Krishna returned to the TMC after few months but was never inducted back into the ministry; the party affairs in the area were handed over to Mamata Bala, the newly elected TMC MP Bongoan.

    But after his father was denied a ticket in the 2016 assembly polls and was cornered in the internal politics over the control of Thakurbari, Shantanu started hobnobbing with the saffron party.

    It was in February 2019, following a socio-religious meeting of the Matua community, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed, that Sanatanu decided to join active politics, and within a month, he was given nomination from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat.

    Ridding on the promise of implementation of CAA and NRC, Shantanu won the seat by defeating his aunt and became one of the key leaders of the BJP in the state.

    He had also accompanied Modi to Bangladesh during his last visit to Dhaka in the middle of the Bengal assembly polls, which also included a tour to Orakandi in Gopalgank district in Bangladesh where the founder of the Matua sect and social reformer Harichand Thakur was born.

    Voting patterns in the recently-held assembly elections showed that the Matuas did not vote en-bloc for any one party and preferred to split their vote between the ruling TMC and the BJP.

    His induction in the union ministry is seen as an attempt to woo back the community, which exhorts influence in at least five Lok Sabha seats in Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas districts, ahead of the 2024 general elections.

  • Bengal polls: Despite wooing by both BJP and Trinamool, Matuas choose to split votes

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Bharatiya Janata Party in its electoral mathematics for Bengal had counted on the 3 million strong Vaishnavite Matua community spread over the districts of Nadia, South and North 24 Parganas as a major vote bank, with the Prime Minister taking time not only to pay repeated visits to Matua dominated constituencies but even to a Matua shrine in neighbouring Bangladesh.

    However actual voting patterns showed that the Matuas did not vote en-bloc for any one party and preferred to split their vote between both the ruling TMC with which many in the community had good relations them as well as BJP which had launched a charm offensive aimed at the community.

    The saffron party had left no stone unturned to win the Matua community’s favour.

    Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior leaders held a series of public meetings in Matua areas.

    The community has the highest concentration in North 24 Parganas and Nadia, along with some places in South 24 Parganas district, but has adherents in other districts and in large parts of western Bangadesh too.

    Hailing from the Namashudra, a scheduled caste, adherents of this Vaishnavite sect are followers of Harichand Thakur a 19th century Vaishnavite reformer.

    While the original seat of the Matua Mahasangha was in Oraikandi in Bangladesh where Thakur was born, Indian Matuas have set up their sects inner sanctum in a new township called Thakurnagar, in North 24 parganas, near the border with Bangladesh.

    However, despite the BJP launching a campaign blitzkrieg in North 24 Parganas, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah holding public meetings to win the hearts of the Matuas, the party could win only five seats out of 33 seats in North 24 Parganas, with TMC accounting for an overwhelming 28 seats.

    It won in Bongaon Uttar, Bongaon Dakshin, Bagda, Gaighata, all of which have a sizeable presence of Matuas and are reserved for the SC communities, apart from Bhatpara.

    All the four constituencies are situated near the Bangladesh border and have a good percentage of refugees from the neighbouring country.

    The BJP-nominated Subrata Thakur, belonging to the family that runs the Matua Mahasangha, won from Gaighata with a margin of 9,578 votes.

    The BJP made a good showing in Nadia, where it won nine out of 17 constituencies, while TMC bagged eight seats.

    However, the spread of BJPs influence in Nadia pre-dates the partys wooing of the Matua community.

    The saffron party won all the five seats reserved for scheduled caste communities in the district – Krishnaganj, Ranaghat Uttar Purba, Ranaghat Dakshin, Haringhata and Kalyani, all of which have a high concentration of Matua voters.

    The Matua community, after the death of their matriarch Binapani Devi, popularly known as “Boro Ma” in March 2019, has split into two groups.

    While one has sided with the TMC, the other seems to have favoured the BJP.

    Both the BJP and the TMC have wooed the Thakur family, descendants of Harichand Thakur to gain the support of Matuas.

    The prime minister, Union Home Minister and several cabinet ministers have visited the Matua Mahasangha headquarters, while the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee too has often spoken of her close relations with “Boro Ma”.

    Shah in his campaign stressed implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in West Bengal and grant of citizenship to Matuas, many of whom had moved in from Bangladesh as refugees.

    Addressing a rally at Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas, where the Matua Mahasangha is headquartered, Shah had in February said that the process of granting Indian citizenship to refugees under the CAA will begin once the process of Covid vaccination ended.

    TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who has opposed the CAA and NRC tooth and nail, also held a number of public meetings in the Matua dominated constituencies of Nadia and North 24 Parganas, stressing that they are already citizens of the country and do not need to go through the process again.

    Besides, the 28 seats TMC won in North 24 Parganas, the party also won all the 31 seats in South 24 Parganas, where the Matuas have a presence in quite a few seats.

  • Mamata reluctant to grant citizenship to Matuas, Namsudras; Rahul a ‘tourist politician’: Amit Shah

    By PTI
    TEHATTA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Friday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of denying citizenship to Dalit Matua and Namsudra communities as her “vote bank would not like it”.

    Reaching out to the two numerically strong communities which can infuence the outcome of assembly elections in many seats, Shah said a Rs 100 crore fund will be created for their welfare if the BJP is voted to power in the state.

    He also mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, calling him a “tourist politician”.

    “These Matua and Namsudra families are living here for 50-70 years, for three generations. But Didi says they will not get citizenship, why? Because her vote back would not like it,” he told an election rally in Tehatta in Nadia district.

    Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi who addressed his first two election rallies on Wednesday after keeping off the campaign in the state where his party is contesting in alliance with the Left while fighting against it in Kerala, Shah branded him a “tourist politician”.

    “A tourist politician arrived in Bengal after almost the entire poll got over and questioned our DNA. BJP’s DNA is development, nationalism and Atmanirbhar Bharat,” he said.

    Flaying “dynasty politics” in the TMC, Shah said while the BJP wants to implement the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme for farmers in Bengal, “Didi only wants Bhaipo (nephew) Samman Nidhi”.

    Top BJP leaders have been accusing Banerjee’s nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee of wielding “unwarranted influence” over the government machinery and running “extortion syndicates”.

    “After people’s mandate on May 2 (counting day), nobody will be left to take cut money, the government of syndicates will be no more there, the government that works for Bhaipo will be gone,” he asserted.

    The home minister assailed the TMC government for “failing to check infiltrators who take away the jobs of our youths and food of our poor”.

    “Let alone illegal immigrants, not even a bird from across the border will be allowed to enter Bengal.

    Not the TMC, neither the Left, nor the Congress, only BJP can stop infiltration,” he asserted.

    He claimed the demography of Nadia district, which shares border with Bangladesh, had got altered because of infiltration.

  • BJP made fake promises to Matuas, CAA implementation won’t happen anytime soon: TMC

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The TMC on Wednesday claimed that the BJP was trying to fox the Matua sect — a community of migrants from Bangladesh — with the promise of implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) sometime soon, as the deadline for framing its rules has been extended till July.

    State minister Bratya Basu, during a press meet here, said the saffron party is planning to garner support by organising ‘rath yatra’ ahead of assembly polls, but its “fake and divisive” politics for individual gains stand exposed.

    “The BJP is practising divisive politics in Assam and Bengal over CAA implementation, notwithstanding the fact that it has adversely affected the Hindu populace among others in the neighbouring state.

    “The Home Ministry’s statement on CAA in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday has brought to light the saffron camp’s fake politics to woo the Matua community in the state,” the TMC leader said at the party headquarters here.

    Basu said that the deadline for framing the CAA rules has been extended, and the law wouldn’t be implemented anytime before the assembly polls.

    Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in a written reply in Parliament on Tuesday that the “rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 are under preparation.

    The Committees on Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have granted extension of time up to April 9 and July 9 respectively to frame these rules under the CAA”.

    The TMC leader claimed that Home Minister Amit Shah probably cancelled his public meeting in Matua stronghold in North 24 Parganas last week, as the promise made to them on CAA implementation might not be fulfilled.

    He maintained that the community has every right to be angry about this development, and asked the Centre to clarify its stand on the citizenship law.

    Shah’s two-day tour of the state from January 30 was cancelled following a low-intensity IED blast near the Israel Embassy in New Delhi.

    Asserting that CAA implementation would also hurt the interests of Bengali Hindus, he recalled that “19 lakh Bengali refugees were sent to detention camps in Assam, following the NRC exercise”.

    Taking a jibe at the saffron camp over its plans to hold a ‘rath yatra’, Basu said, “Sri Chaitanya, who had preached togetherness and equality, is associated with the cultural and religious carnival, mainly celebrated in Odisha.

    “A Muslim man was also instrumental in organising the original yatra. The saffron party, however, is opposed to those ideals.”

    The CAA, passed by the Parliament in 2019, aims to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants who moved to India from neighbouring countries to escape religious persecution.

    The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a document containing names of all genuine Indian citizens.

    It was updated in Assam two years ago.

  • Amit Shah on two-day visit to Bengal, to oversee BJP’s poll preparedness

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah will arrive in Kolkata tonight on a two-day visit beginning on Saturday to take stock of the BJP’s preparedness ahead of the assembly elections in West Bengal.

    His visit comes in the backdrop of growing rebellion in the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) with several ministers and MLAs openly speaking out against the party and the functioning of the state government.

    Speculations are rife that former minister Rajib Banerjee who has resigned as cabinet minister and TMC MLA, expelled TMC MLA Baishali Dalmiya and Uttarpara MLA Prabir Ghoshal may join the saffron party during Shah’s visit.

    “On Saturday morning, Shah will be visiting Iskcon, Mayapur. Then he will be going to Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas, a bastion of Matuas, where he will address a public rally. Later in the day, he will hold a closed-door meeting with social media cell of the party. He has some other engagements too,” a state BJP leader said.

    Shah will also hold a meeting with party leaders to review its poll prepararedness.

    “On Sunday he will be visiting Aurobindo Bhawan to pay his respects to Sri Aurobindo. Then he will be going to Bharat Sevashram Sangha. From there he will proceed to Howrah where he will address a public meeting,” the BJP leader said.

    Later in the evening, he will be visiting Belur Math. According to BJP sources, there will be “surprises” at Shah’s rally in Howrah.

    “Lists of TMC leaders likely to join our party are doing the rounds in social media. I can only say that there will be several surprises on Sunday,” BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.

    In the biggest single-day exodus from the TMC, political heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, along with 35 party leaders, including five MLAs and an MP, had joined the BJP during Shah’s rally in Medinipur on December 19.

    Since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP bagged 18 seats from the state, 14 legislators of the TMC, four from the Left Front and two from the Congress have joined the saffron party.

    Elections to the 294-member state assembly are due in April-May.

  • Mamata Banerjee plays CAA card to win back Matua support

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Ratcheting up her rhetoric against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Mamata Banerjee on Monday fired a fresh volley at the BJP in an attempt to draw the Matua population away from the saffron camp. Matuas are Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh counting on the implementation of CAA to gain Indian citizenship, a desire the BJP capitalised on during the last Lok Sabha election. 

    “Why do you (Matua) need citizenship? You are already citizens,” said Mamata, addressing the electorate at Ranaghat in Nadia on Monday. Mamata’s Monday rally was an attempt to regain the ground it lost to BJP in Nadia in the last hustings. “I will never allow the BJP to implement CAA or NRC. It (BJP) is trying to hoodwink people,” she said at what was her citadel before the saffron wave swept across the region, which accounts for over 40 per cent of the Matua electorate that supported the BJP in 2019. 

    Tapping into the simmering discontent among the Matuas over the delay in the implementation of CAA, Mamata reiterated her position that the Act would entail the Centre demanding documents related to date of birth of elderly parents. “Most of them do not have such documents. If your parents fail to submit the documents, they will be driven out of the country. So, in the upcoming elections, drive the BJP out of Bengal to protect your family,” she said. 

    Mamata has been into an overdrive to draw the Matuas away from the BJP by playing up their citizenship fears. Last month, she addressed a rally in Bongaon in North 24 Parganas and on Monday, she was in Ranaghat. Electorate at both the seats is predominantly Matua and Dalit immigrants from Bangladesh. Mamta’s attempt is aided by the studied silence maintained by the BJP leadership. Recently, BJP MP from Bongaon Shantanu Thakur had expressed his discontent over the delay and hinted at possible shift in Matuas’ political allegiance.