Bongaon, North 24 Parganas: On 26 April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Matua Thakur Temple in Thakurnagar, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal to offer prayers to Matua community founders Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur.
The visit came during campaigning for the West Bengal assembly elections and was aimed at reaching out the Matua community, which has an influence in at least 30-35 seats in the upcoming second and final phase of West Bengal elections.
As the headquarters of the Matua Mahasangha, Matua Thakur Temple, in Thakur Nagar of Bongaon area in North 24 Parganas is a key spiritual and political center for the Namasudra community. The Matua Mahasangha is a 19th-century movement focused on social reform and education for the Namasudra community. This reporter visited Matua Mahasangha, Matua Thakur Temple, in Thakur Nagar last week.
The Thakur family of Thakurnagar is often referred to as the Matuas' "first family" as it traces its lineage to the sect's founder Harichand Thakur, and has shaped the community's religious leadership and political direction.
Union Minister Shantanu Thakur and his elder brother Subrata Thakur, the BJP MLA and candidate from Gaigatha seat live in two palatial houses standing next to each other in the neibourhood known as Thakurbari. Their aunt Mamata Bala Thakur, is a TMC leader and Rajya Sabha MP. Her daughter, Madhuparna Thakur is a sitting TMC MLA and candidate from Bagda seat in the 29 April second phase of West Bengal elections. The mother-daughter duo own the old version of the ancestral houses, not very far from Shantanu and Subrata's palatial mansions.
While the family is united by community, brothers, wives and cousins are contesting elections from rival camps - the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress.
The electoral battle runs through the divided Matua first family in community stronghold assembly seats of Bagda and Gaighata in North 24 Parganas district bordering Bangladesh,
Sisters-in-law fight it out in Bagda
In Bagda, the TMC has fielded sitting MLA Madhuparna Thakur. She is daughter of TMC leader and Rajya Sabha MP Mamatabala Thakur. The BJP has fielded Soma Thakur, wife of Union minister Shantanu Thakur. The result is a rare political duel between two sisters-in-law, with both claiming to represent the Matua legacy.
Bagda, where Scheduled Castes account for more than 53 per cent of the electorate and Matuas make up over 40 per cent of voters, has long been seen as a political weather vane in the refugee belt.
BJP's Biswajit Das won the seat in 2021 with nearly 49 per cent of the votes. But Das later crossed over to the TMC. In the 2024 bypoll, the TMC brought in Madhuparna Thakur, one of the youngest members of the Thakur family, and she won with more than 55 per cent of the votes.
Yet the BJP's decision to field Soma Thakur has not gone down well with many local workers. They wanted a local face and rallied behind former BJP MLA Dulal Bar, now contesting as an Independent.
The resentment is similar in neighboring Gaighata, where BJP MLA Subrata Thakur, elder brother of Shantanu Thakur and chairman of the All India Matua Mahasangh, is seeking re-election.
Gaighata contest
Gaighata was one of the BJP's showcase victories in 2021. Thakurbari, where the Thakur family houses are situated, and the temple, fall under this assembly seat. Subrata Thakur won the seat with around 47 per cent of the votes in 2021 assembly polls, consolidating the Matua support that had shifted towards the saffron camp after the citizenship promise.
This time, he is facing not only TMC candidate Narottam Biswas, but also discontent in his own party. Tanima Sen, a BJP mandal president, filed nomination as an Independent in protest against Subrata's candidature, accusing the party of imposing a "family candidate" and ignoring grassroots opinion.
Though she later withdrew after a truce with the BJP leadership, the episode exposed simmering anger against what several local workers describe as the growing dominance of the Thakurbari in party affairs.
The tension has made Bagda and Gaighata in the Bongaon subdivision among the most closely watched constituencies in the second phase of the polls on April 29.
Who are Matuas?
Matuas, originally from East Pakistan, are Hindus who migrated to India during the Partition and after the creation of Bangladesh. The Matua community is a prominent Bengali Hindu Scheduled Caste group (primarily Namasudras) with significant religious and political influence in West Bengal.
Matuas are similar to Hindu Dalit communities but, unlike them, are considered a separate religious sect. Centred in North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts, the Matuas constitute a crucial voting bloc (approx. 3.8 per cent of the state population) and are influential in 30-35 assembly seats.
The family fued
Union Minister Shantanu Thakur is the grandson of Matua matriarch Binapani Devi, while Mamata Bala Thakur is her daughter-in-law.
Thakur, local BJP MP and Matua community leader, has been engaged in an intense political and family feud with his aunt, Mamata Bala Thakur, a Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP. They are rivals for control over the Matua Mahasangha and the late matriarch Binapani Devi's house in Thakurnagar, West Bengal.
Shantanu Thakur (BJP) defeated Mamata Bala Thakur (TMC) to win the Bangaon Lok Sabha seat in 2019.
In April 2024, Mamata Bala Thakur filed a complaint alleging Shantanu forcibly tried to enter and break the locks on their family home, leading to a police FIR against him.
Both factions claim leadership of the Matua community, with clashes arising over control of the Thakurnagar headquarters.
SIR Impact
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has stirred fresh anxieties among Hindu refugees from Matua community who once voted together. Around 55,000 names were deleted from electoral rolls in Bagda and nearly 39,000 in Gaighata, according to a PTI report. North 24-Parganas, the district with the largest concentration of Matua refugees, lost more than 12.3 lakh names after the revision.
For the BJP, the deletions have struck at the core of its political message. Since 2019, the party had built its rise in the Matua belt around a simple proposition -- support the BJP, and the uncertainty over citizenship would end through the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). But many of those who applied for citizenship certificates now claim their names have vanished from the voter list.
"We were promised citizenship. Now we are being told we may not even vote," said Sukhomoy Haldar, a resident of Gaighata told news agency PTI.
The unease has produced political consequences. In Gaighata, 61 BJP workers joined the TMC after the publication of the final rolls. In Bagda, nearly 50 Matua families switched sides.
Shantanu Thakur, in an interview with LiveMint at his house in Thakur Nagar, said the community would definitely vote for the BJP.
"The community's main demand was CAA. And our government at the centre have done it. People know that they will get citizenship as promised and nobody will be pushed to Bangladesh," Thakur told LiveMint on 16 April.
Deletions signs of a shift in the refugee belt
The TMC sees the deletions as the first signs of a shift in the refugee belt. "People who were promised citizenship are now standing in queues to prove they are voters. The Matua community feels betrayed, and that anger is visible in Bagda and Gaighata," Madhuparna Thakur told news agency PTI.
Her mother Mamata Bala Thakur said Matuas voted for the BJP, believing it would give them citizenship. "Now, even their voting rights are being snatched away. People are terrified that after their names vanish from the rolls, tomorrow they may be branded foreigners," she told news agency PTI.
Since a large number of refugees from Bangladesh do not have official documents from that country, the Mahasangha proposed in March 2024 that the Centre should add new clauses to the CAA rules. That has not happened yet, though.
Who will Matuas support?
For years, the BJP told Bengal's refugee Hindus that citizenship was only a vote away. After the final SIR rolls, many in the Matua heartland are asking if their names on the voter list are no longer secure. As poll day nears, the question thus remains: Who will Matuas support this time?
"It will be difficult to ascertain who Matuas will support in this election. I think the BJP will be able to convince the community that the voter deletion issue will be resolved and citizenship will be granted," Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, a senior journalist and author of 'Mission Bengal: A Saffron Experiment' told LiveMint.
For decades, the Matuas voted under the shadow of Binapani Devi, the community matriarch whose word often decided political allegiance. Today, that certainty has vanished. The same Thakur family now stands divided between the BJP and the TMC, with brothers, wives and cousins fighting from opposite camps.
The BJP had once turned the Matua belt into the backbone of its Bengal rise by promising citizenship and certainty. Today, in Bagda and Gaighata, that promise is colliding with missing names, rebel candidates and a divided Thakurbari.
The TMC, led by Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee, has sought to turn that anger into a political counterattack, arguing that even Hindu refugees who voted for the BJP are no longer safe from name deletion.Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata's nephew and senior TMC leader, even said at a press conference that 63 per cent of names deleted in SIR were Hindus.
The second phase of asssembly polls on 29 April is crucial for TMC as much as it is for the BJP. In 2021, the ruling TMC won 120 of the 142 assembly seats voting in second phase on Wednesday. And seats with considerable Matua population will be watched closely, at least until the results are out on 4 May.
(With agency inputs)