PM Modi to address first rally in West Bengal since draft roll release amid SIR concerns of Matuas

Around 1.36 crore entries have also been flagged for “logical discrepancies”, while 30 lakh voters have been categorised as unmapped a significant percentage of whom are likely to be called for verification hearings over the next 45 days.For Matuas, a Dalit Hindu community that migrated from Bangladesh over decades due to religious persecution, this exercise has revived anxieties over identity and documentation.Political observers widely believe that the community members hold sway in as many as 80 of the 294 assembly seats in the state.Speculations are rife that significant numbers of Matuas have already been excluded from draft rolls.Many more are likely to follow suit in the final rolls on account of the unavailability of the EC-specified indicative documents they need to produce in the eventuality of receiving hearing notices during the verification phase.Over the past years, poll results have indicated that the BJP gained significant inroads within the community, promising them formal Indian citizenship.BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar, who represents the Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat, where Taherpur is located, claimed that fear was being spread deliberately among the Matuas about SIR.”We are hopeful that the PM’s message would dispel those fears and canards,” he said.Chief Minister Banerjee has already led anti-SIR rallies in Nadia and North 24 Parganas, the two adjoining districts that share a border with Bangladesh and have a significant Matua presence.During his visit, the PM will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for two national highway projects worth around Rs 3,200 crore.He will inaugurate the 66.7-km-long four-laning of the Barajaguli-Krishnanagar section of NH-34 in Nadia district and lay the foundation stone for the four-laning of the 17.6-km-long Barasat Barajaguli section in North 24 Parganas district.The projects are expected to serve as a vital connecting link between Kolkata and Siliguri, boosting trade, tourism and economic activity across southern and northern parts of the state, officials said.



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