Clamour for implementation of CAA grows amid Bengal BJP ahead of Amit Shah’s visit

BJP MP Shantanu Thakur said that he was hopeful that the Centre would soon implement CAA

Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah. Credit: PTI File Photo

Ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s two-day visit to West Bengal starting on November 5, a section of state BJP leaders want him to clarify Centre’s stand on the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

According to sources in the state, BJP leaders were apprehensive that the delay and confusion over CAA implementation might turn refugee voters against BJP in the 2021 Assembly elections.

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Sources further revealed that these leaders' main concern was the Matua community, a socio-religious sect formed by the 19th-century social reformer Harichand Thakur in modern-day Bangladesh.

Those belonging to the Namosudra caste are also deciding factor in 21 Assembly segments spread across the districts of Nadia, North 24 Paraganas and South 24 Paraganas.

According to sources, BJP leaders from the refugee-dominated border districts of Bengal were apprehensive that refugee voters would see this delay in implementation of the CAA as the saffron party’s failure to keep its promise.

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They even refused to buy the argument put forward by BJP's Central leadership including that of party president J P Nadda that the delay in implementation of CAA was because the rules for the Act had not yet been framed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The common people will not understand all these administrative complications. They will think that BJP cannot keep its promises,” said a senior state BJP leader from a border district.

BJP MP from the refugee-dominated Bongaon Lok Sabha seat Shantanu Thakur recently wrote to Amit Shah over the issue, and said that he was hopeful that the Centre would soon enact CAA.

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Another BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar from the Ranaghat constituency said that the CAA had been a demand for refugees for a long time and he was hopeful that it would soon come into force.

Apart from the CAA the issue of finalising BJP’s “face” in Bengal for the 2021 Assembly elections was another topic which a section of state BJP leaders want Shah to make clear. BJP sources said that without it the ongoing faction feud in the party would not get resolved.