BJP demands separate polling booths for Hindus in West Bengal

Kolkata: With assembly elections in West Bengal just a little over a year away, the Bharatiya Janata Party has on Monday urged the state’s Chief Electoral Officer to set up separate polling booths for the Hindus, wherever the community is in the minority.

The BJP, the principal challenger to the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, also demanded that the polling booths exclusively meant for the Hindus should be set up in a way that the voters did not have to go through the areas dominated by the Muslims on their way to cast votes.

“The Hindus are in dire straits in West Bengal due to the misrule of Mamata Banerjee’s government. They cannot even exercise democratic rights and cast votes in several places in the state,” Suvendu Adhikari, the state BJP heavyweight and the Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly, said on Monday. “There have been instances of the Hindu voters being intimidated and stopped from casting votes in the areas where the Hindus are in the minority.”

He hit out at the TMC supremo and the chief minister, accusing her of deploying “Shanti Vahini (peace force) of her vote-bank” to dissuade the Hindus from casting votes.

After the recent protest against the new Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, turned violent and led to communal clashes in Murshidabad in West Bengal, the BJP sharpened its attack on the TMC government, accusing it of not protecting the Hindus from persecution just for the sake of keeping intact the party’s “vote-bank among the Muslims”.

Adhikari not only demanded separate polling booths for the Hindus wherever the community is in the minority but also urged the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal that access to such polling booths should not be through the “Muslim Mohallas”.

“I request Manoj Agarwal, the CEO of West Bengal, to start booth mapping immediately (to identify areas where the Hindus are in the minority),” Adhikari said, adding that he would soon submit a memorandum to the Election Commission.