West Bengal at core of BJP’s CAA push

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 11

A day after West Bengal’s ruling All India Trinamool Congress declared all 42 candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections in the state, the BJP-led Centre notified rules to implement the long-awaited Citizenship Amendment Act-2019, which was part of the saffron party’s poll promise in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2021 Bengal poll.

Campaign slogan, “Joh kaha woh kiya (we did what we said)”, thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for keeping his word hit BJP’s social media platforms soon as the government announced its decision to notify the rules for giving effect to the CAA that will grant citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim religious minorities who arrived in India by December 31, 2014, from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. “The CAA was an integral part of the BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha poll manifesto. It will pave the way for the persecuted to find citizenship in India,” government and BJP sources said today.

With the CAA implementation, the BJP seeks to challenge Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the LS poll, where saffron forces are eyeing big gains.

Importantly, Union Minister Shantanu Thakur and sitting Lok Sabha MP from Bangaon, who was renominated from the same seat on March 2, recently remarked that the CAA would be implemented nationally soon.

Bongaon is home to Matuas, who have been immigrating to India since the 1950s to flee religious persecution in present-day Bangladesh.

While TMC chief Mamata Banerjee today vowed not to let the CAA be implemented in Bengal, the BJP top brass hailed the development.

In Bengal, at the core of the BJP’s CAA move, the implementation of the law would guarantee citizenship to nearly 30 lakh-strong Matuas, who hold sway in nearly five Lok Sabha segments and over 50 Assembly seats across North and South 24 Parganas and Nadia districts.

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#BJP #Citizenship Amendment Act CAA #Congress #Lok Sabha #Trinamool Congress #West Bengal