Kolkata: At a time when the entire West Bengal was looking forward to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s rally at the much talked about Matua belt in Thakurnagar, the West Bengal BJP on Friday late evening said that Shah’s trip to West Bengal stands cancelled.
Citing 'unavoidable situations', the BJP West Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh said that Shah's two-day visit to the state stands cancelled.
According to BJP sources, a host of TMC leaders including Rajib Banerjee, Baishali Dalmiya, Prabir Ghoshal, and former Howrah Municipal Corporation Mayor Rathin Chakraborty were about to defect to the saffron camp from Shah’s rally on January 31.
Notably, new speculations started over Shah’s meeting getting cancelled at North 24 Parganas Thakurnagar. Incidentally, BJP MP of Bongaon, Shantanu Thakur has also been vocal against the central government for the delay in implementing the CAA to give Matuas citizenship.
Union Home Minister, who had visited West Bengal last month was also scheduled to hold a rally in Thakurnagar but the venue was later changed.
BJP sources earlier also confirmed that the BJP leaders were ‘not confident’ for which the venue of Home Minister was changed.
This bordering place between India and Bangladesh and is also the house of over three crore Matuas, who is said to be one of the deciding electorates in West Bengal.
It is pertinent to mention that Matuas said to be very close to the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and a major political force behind bringing TMC to power in 2011, had shown their discontent towards the chief minister and in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, these refugees, particularly the ‘Matuas’ helped the BJP to secure nine to 10 seats out of 18 constituencies that the party won.
