Will remove infiltrators from West Bengal: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday sharpened the BJP’s “infiltration” pitch, declaring that while “only names are being deleted now” from West Bengal’s electoral rolls under the SIR, the infiltrators would be “removed from the State” once the party comes to power, raising the stakes ahead of the Assembly polls.

Launching the BJP’s ‘Poriborton Yatra’ from Mathurapur in South 24 Parganas, his first visit since the publication of the post-SIR rolls on Saturday, Shah slammed the TMC Government over what he described as years of unchecked infiltration under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s watch, signalling that border security and citizenship will anchor the BJP’s final electoral push.

“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,” he said, addressing a gathering in the coastal belt abutting the Sundarbans and close to the porous Indo-Bangladesh frontier.

His remarks came days after the Election Commission’s post-SIR rolls recorded 63.66 lakh deletions, 8.3 per cent of the electorate, reducing the voter base to just over 7.04 crore ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.

More than 60.06 lakh electors have also been placed in the “under adjudication” category, subject to scrutiny in the coming weeks, marking the most sweeping electoral reset in the state since 2002.

For the BJP, which has built its Bengal pitch around citizenship and border security since 2019, the revised rolls have provided both validation and velocity.

“TMC has made Bengal a swarg (heaven) for infiltrators,” Shah alleged, asserting that the border State’s security had been compromised by “appeasement politics”.

“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.

Drawing a calibrated distinction between “infiltrators” and Hindu refugees, a politically sensitive divide in the Matua-dominated refugee belt, Shah sought to reassure Hindu migrants from Bangladesh.

“I want to assure Hindu refugees that not a single refugee will lose their citizenship,” he said, reiterating the party’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) plank.

The SIR churn has been sharpest in the Matua belt across North 24 Parganas, Nadia and parts of north Bengal, where community leaders claim nearly 40 per cent of the community has been impacted either through deletions or by ‘under adjudication’, an assertion that, if validated, could reverberate across 40-50 Assembly seats where the Dalit Hindu refugee bloc anchors the BJP’s core vote bank.

The ‘Poriborton Yatra’, Shah said, was not merely about a change of chief minister but about “freeing Bengal from infiltrators, corruption and syndicate raj”.

“Change means securing our borders. Change means ending corruption in jobs. Change means safety for mothers and sisters. Change means rule of law,” he said, repeatedly asking the crowd whether infiltrators should be removed and whether corruption in recruitment should end.

Shah also accused Banerjee of duplicity on religious issues.

“Mamata Banerjee is now busy inaugurating temples as she knows the Hindus are not happy with her. But she is allowing the building of Babri Masjid in Bengal. In a well-crafted conspiracy, she has ensured Humayun Kabir’s exit from the party so that he can build the Babri Masjid. This is a nexus between Kabir and Mamata Didi,” he alleged.

TMC MLA Kabir had, 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. He was later expelled from the party.

Besides infiltration, Shah widened the attack surface to corruption, fiscal stress and alleged dynastic ambitions within the ruling party.

Listing alleged scams — teacher recruitment, municipal appointments, cattle smuggling, PDS ration distribution, MGNREGA and PM Awas — he accused the TMC of institutionalising graft and alleged that several of its leaders had landed in jail.

“And the DGP who provided protection to all these scams is being sent to the Rajya Sabha by Mamata Banerjee,” he said, criticising the TMC’s decision to nominate former DGP Rajeev Kumar to the Upper House.

Kumar, who retired as the acting Director General of Police of West Bengal in January this year and earlier headed the Kolkata Police, was at the centre of a high-profile confrontation between the state Government and central agencies during the CBI probe into the Saradha chit fund case.

“Corruption has become Bengal’s identity. Whenever Bengal’s name comes up in the country, the first thing that comes to mind is the corrupt TMC Government,” Shah said.

In a pointed “bhaipo” (nephew) barb aimed at TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Shah alleged that the chief minister’s real goal was to install her nephew in power.

“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,” he said.

“Bring a BJP Government,” he told the crowd, “And within 45 days we will implement the Seventh Pay Commission for State Government employees, fill vacant posts without bribery, ensure security for women, and jail those who killed BJP workers.”