Dalit members of the Matua sect say CAA rules have crushed their citizenship hopes. ‘Fellow Matuas in Bangladesh are being targeted for being Sanatanis.’
Bongaon MP Thakur, an influential leader of the Matua community, is now one of only two representatives from Bengal in Modi’s new Council of Ministers, the other being Sukanta Majumdar.
Kolkata: Shuttling between Sandeshkhali and Balurghat, the Lok Sabha constituency from where he became a first-time MP in 2019 and from where he will...
Implementation of CAA was a key demand of Matua-Namasudras, who form around 40% of electorate in Ranaghat (SC) and Bongaon (SC) Lok Sabha constituencies, both community strongholds.
Matuas form the second-largest bloc of SC voters in West Bengal. Mamata Bala Thakur's late husband Kapil Krishna Thakur had won Bongaon Lok Sabha seat for TMC in 2014.
Bengal sends 3rd-highest number of MPs to Lok Sabha. Mamata has vowed to not let Citizenship (Amendment) Act be implemented in state, where BJP continues to woo the Matua community.
At a rally in Nadia, Bengal CM claims BJP is using Citizenship (Amendment) Act for Gujarat polls & asserts Matuas are very much citizens of this country.
CAA was passed by Parliament in 2019, but central government yet to form rules for its implementation. On 9 January, it missed the third deadline extension.
The Matua community, seen as a deciding factor in at least 30 to 35 assembly seats, is the key for BJP to breach Mamata Banerjee’s fortress — south Bengal.
DMK govt accuses Centre of withholding funds, tightening borrowing, unilateral deductions from state accounts. Says Centre's accounting & funding decisions have 'artificially inflated' debt burden.
This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they’d seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe.
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