CM Mamata flays ECI over 'deliberate exclusion' of several Matua voters from Bengal electoral rolls

Kolkata, March 5 (IANS) On the death anniversary of Binapani Devi, the former head of Matua Mahasangha in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Centre and the ECI over "deliberate exclusion" of Matua voters from the electoral rolls.

Matuas are people from the Hindu backward class community coming as refugees from neighbouring Bangladesh and settling in different pockets in the state, with their concentration mainly in the two districts of North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

"It is very unfortunate that due to the conspiracy of the BJP government at the centre, the Matua brothers and sisters have been pushed into an unstable and confusing situation. Political games are being played in the name of granting citizenship to them. Questions are being raised about their identity. They are being deliberately excluded from the voters' list through SIR. Those who had been the citizens of this country through generations and whose votes elected the government, are today being made to face uncertainty in the name of granting them new citizenship," the Chief Minister said in her social media statement.

She also claimed that she would not accept this "injustice" at any cost.

"We will continue to fight against the attempts to take away the rights of the people of West Bengal, including my Matua brothers and sisters. We will not allow any atrocity on the people of Bengal. This is my pledge on this special day," the Chief Minister said.

Incidentally, from Friday, the Chief Minister is scheduled for a sustained sit-in demonstration at Esplanade in Central Kolkata to protest against the SIR exercise. However, it is yet to be clear how long the sit-in demonstration will continue.

Reacting to the Chief Minister's statement, former national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the party's former state president in West Bengal, Rahul Sinha, said that the Chief Minister is unnecessarily trying to "instigate" the Matuas.

"Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had once again assured that not a single Matua will be denied citizenship or deported out of the country. How much the Chief Minister might try to instigate our Matua brothers and sisters, she will not be successful in her ploy," said Sinha, who is the lone BJP candidate for Rajya Sabha in the elections to be held this month.

--IANS