Kolkata, Dec. 20 -- The Trinamool Congress on Saturday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at the Taherpur rally in West Bengal showed his "lack of concern" for the Matuas, who have been facing uncertainties over deletion of names post publication of the draft electoral rolls under the SIR.
Its state general secretary Kunal Ghosh also claimed that the Prime Minister did not utter a single word about the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states.
"Modi's speech lacked vision and responsibility. He did not address the concerns of the Matuas," he told reporters.
For the Matuas, a Dalit Hindu refugee community that migrated from Bangladesh over decades following religious persecution, the first statewide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) since 2002 has created anxieties among voters over identity and citizenship.
Statewide, 58,20,898 names have been excluded from the draft electoral rolls under SIR, reducing West Bengal's electorate from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore.
EC data also show around 1.36 crore entries flagged for logical discrepancies, and nearly 30 lakh voters categorised as unmapped, taking the number of voters who may be called for hearings to around 1.66 crore.
Matua leaders across party lines claimed a major share of these voters belong to the community.
Ghosh also alleged that the PM "remained silent on the deportation of Indian citizens to Bangladesh by the police force of BJP-ruled states, who could return to their motherland India at the intervention of the judiciary".
His allusion was to migrant Sunali Khatun, who returned to India on December 6 after being pushed into Bangladesh in June.
Ghosh also claimed, "Modi did not explain why the Centre blocked the funds for central projects for the poor people in Bengal and weaved a false narrative about lack of development in Bengal."
He asked why the Centre has withheld thousands of crores of funds under the 100-day rural employment scheme.
"Why has he deprived the poor of building their own houses in rural areas? Why has the drinking water project been stalled by the Centre? The Mamata Banerjee government is mobilising its own resources to run these projects," he claimed.
Ghosh claimed that a few BJP workers died in a train accident on the way to the Teherpur rally and blamed the "crowd mismanagement at Modi's programme".
"We are sad over the loss of lives of BJP workers. But had there been proper management on the way to the venue, it could have been avoided," he claimed.
The railway authorities confirmed that three people died and three others were injured after being hit by a train amid dense fog on Saturday, while travelling to attend Modi's rally at Taherpur in Nadia district.
TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said, "Modi ji came to know about posters with slogans like 'Narendra Modi go back'. The Matuas are furious with the PM and his party."
Modi lashed out at the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, calling the state's prevailing situation "maha jungle raj" and alleging that "corruption, nepotism and appeasement of the ruling dispensation have prevented the ushering of development to its people.
Addressing a massive gathering at Taherpur in Nadia over the phone from Kolkata, Modi urged the people to provide a chance to the BJP in the 2026 assembly polls to form a "double-engine government" in the state.
CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty claimed Modi realised that members of the Matua community are "upset with both the BJP and the TMC for using them as a vote bank while cheating them on the citizenship issue".
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.