Mathurapur (WB), Mar 2 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday sharpened the BJP’s pitch on infiltration, declaring that while “only names of infiltrators are being deleted now” from voter rolls, they would be “pushed out of the state” once the party comes to power with a full majority in West Bengal.
Addressing the BJP’s Poriborton Yatra here in South 24 Parganas district, his first visit to the state since the publication of the revised electoral rolls on Saturday, Shah said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had turned Bengal into a “swarg (heaven) for infiltrators” and alleged that the border state’s security was compromised because the ruling dispensation allowed illegal immigration.
“Bengal is a bordering state. The TMC cannot ensure security because they allow infiltration. Only the BJP can provide security to a bordering state like Bengal,” he said.
His remarks come against the backdrop of the post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral rolls published on Saturday, which recorded 63.66 lakh deletions, 8.3 per cent of the electorate, since the exercise began in November, reducing the voter base to just over 7.04 crore and significantly redrawing constituency arithmetic ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
“I want to assure Hindu refugees that not a single one among them will lose their citizenship,” he said, seeking to draw a distinction between what the BJP terms “infiltrators” and persecuted minorities who migrated from neighbouring countries.
“Right now only names are being deleted from voter rolls, and Mamata Didi is nervous. Once BJP forms the government, we will identify and remove every infiltrator from Bengal,” Shah said.
Infiltration and corruption will stop when the BJP comes to power with a full majority, the Union home minister said, repeating the charge that the TMC government under Mamata Banerjee had failed to secure the borders.
In a sharp personal attack, he alleged that Banerjee was “busy inaugurating temples” while “allowing the building of Babri Masjid in Bengal”, and claimed that the exit of TMC leader Humayun Kabir was part of a “well-crafted conspiracy” to facilitate the construction of such a mosque.
Kabir in December last year laid the foundation stone for a mosque – modelled on Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid – at Rejinagar in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.
“If the people here make the mistake of voting again for the TMC, Bengal will have a government run by nephew Abhishek Banerjee and not by Mamata Didi,” Shah said, seeking to revive the BJP’s “bhaipo” (nephew) attack line.
In a sweeping electoral reset barely months before the 2026 Assembly polls, the 116-day SIR drive, the first intensive revision since 2002, has also placed more than 60.06 lakh electors in the “under adjudication” category, their eligibility now subject to judicial scrutiny in the coming weeks. PTI PNT NN
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