Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and Matua leader Shantanu Thakur’s recent remarks on Matuas ‘tolerating’ the deletion of one lakh names during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls sparked a political row between the saffron party and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), triggering clashes between the two factions in the Matua heartland of Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas on Wednesday (December 24, 2025).
“If 50 lakh Rohingyas, Bangladeshi Muslims, and Pakistani Muslims are removed during the SIR exercise, while one lakh of our own people are required to stop voting for a while, where are we gaining more?” Mr. Thakur said at a BJP event in West Bengal’s Hanskhali-Garapota on Monday (December 22).
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Speaking to the press later at the same event, the MP from the Matua-heavy Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency further said that if one lakh Matua names were deleted from the electoral roll during the SIR, then the community should endure the ‘sacrifice’ for the sake of their own safety against ‘those who used to terrorise them’.
It is worth noting that the Matua community—a sect of Namashudra Hindus who migrated from erstwhile East Pakistan (Bangladesh) to West Bengal after 1947—has been considered electorally inclined towards the saffron party, with the BJP winning the Lok Sabha seat twice consecutively.
