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Bagda/Gaighata (North 24 Parganas): In Bengal’s Matua belt, the coming election is being haunted by a question more basic than who will win. Who will be allowed to vote at all?

Across Bagda, Gaighata and other parts of the Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency, residents say their names have disappeared from the rolls or have been placed under adjudication, leaving thousands in uncertainty. In village after village, the complaints follow a pattern: names missing without explanation, women disproportionately affected, poor residents being asked to produce documents they no longer have, and those who have voted for years suddenly being asked to prove they belong.

The anger has spilled into repeated protests outside the residence of Union minister and Matua Mahasangha leader Shantanu Thakur. From Gaighata, Chandpara, Bagda and nearby areas, aggrieved residents have been turning up at the BJP leader’s home demanding answers. The issue has become so politically sensitive that the BJP fielded Shantanu Thakur’s wife, Soma Thakur, as its candidate from Bagda.

‘What can I do about the Election Commission’s rules?’

The crisis is unfolding in a region where citizenship, caste and political allegiance have long been tightly bound together. Both Bagda and Gaighata are mostly rural, border constituencies with high Scheduled Caste populations, substantial Matua presence, and significant out-migration for work. In Gaighata, the SC population stands at 41.08%. In Bagda, it is even higher at 49.38%. Both constituencies sit along the international border, and both contain large numbers of poor working households whose lives are shaped by migration, insecure paperwork, and bureaucratic vulnerability. That background makes the present deletions politically explosive.

Speaking to The Wire, Shantanu Thakur said, “It is true that this time, in the assembly election, a section of voters will not be able to vote. I hope that if they fill out the CAA form and submit their citizenship application, they will regain their voting rights. What can I do about the Election Commission’s rules?” 

Also read: Rs 800 for Citizenship: At Union Minister’s ‘Camp’, BJP is Monetising Matuas’ CAA Applications

That statement has done little to reassure people on the ground. If anything, it has sharpened them. Many of those affected insist they are not recent arrivals, not undocumented outsiders, but long-settled residents whose families have voted for generations.

Nowhere is the shock more visible than at Booth........

© The Wire