West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made a electoral prediction on Tuesday, asserting that the BJP will lose Gujarat in the upcoming elections despite its “desperate attempts” to hold on to power. She was speaking at a public meeting in Bongaon, North 24 Paraganas - known to be the hub of Matua community. Matuas are a significant population within the SC community - the marginalised Hindus who had migrated from Bangladesh to escape persecution decades back. This second largest Scheduled caste community in West Bengal, has a sway over at least 40 assembly seats - to them BJP has been promising citizenship through Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) since 2019.
Most of them are at risk amidst the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) voter revision owing to their migration in and around 2002 - the cut off year decided by Election Commission of India for voter mapping. Mamata Banerjee while assuring them support, slammed BJP of “betraying” their trust - called this promise for citizenship a “election carrot” dangled to fool people and garner their votes. “Not a single genuine voter will be sacrificed. Wait for the draft of SIR to come out, there are bound to be errors because of this paucity of time within which the BLOs are made to work overtime. If one genuine voter is left out, we will not stay quiet. There is no reason to fear, as long as TMC and we are there, no Matua will be deported”, she assured.
She directly challenged the BJP-led Centre’s accusations of infiltration against the Bengal Government, arguing that border security lies exclusively under the Centre’s jurisdiction and questioning how the State can be blamed “unless the Centre itself is complicit”. Warning of a major political shift, she predicted that 2029 will be “very dangerous” for the BJP and that they will “no longer remain in power”. Addressing the gathering, Mamata Banerjee said, “Border security falls under the jurisdiction of the Centre. So how are we being accused of facilitating infiltration unless you were complicit? You tried the same trick in Bihar, but that will not be possible here. We have always unmasked your conspiracies. In the upcoming elections, the BJP will lose Gujarat. You may try your hardest to win Bengal, but you will lose Gujarat.”
Reaffirming her resolve, she declared, “If you attack the voters of Bengal, I will see that as an attack on myself. If you do so then I will shake the whole of India. After the elections, I will travel across the entire country,” positioning herself as a national force ready to take the fight beyond Bengal post 2026 assembly elections and ahead of 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
