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Leaders of the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday (October 25, 2025) urged ‘refugees of religious persecution’ from Bangladesh to apply for Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as soon as possible, and claimed their names will appear on the State’s voters’ list.
“We request Bangladeshi Hindu refugees to enrol in CAA camps. On behalf of the BJP and the Rashtravadi Vichar Parivar, several camps are being organised, with computers, printers and laptops. Please visit these camps, contact the BJP mandals. Every mandal has multiple assistance camps going on. Please apply, the Indian government and the West Bengal BJP will stand beside you,” Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari said on Saturday.
He also clarified that Bangladeshi Hindus who have entered West Bengal due to religious persecution “are not infiltrators, they are refugees”.
“Till now, roughly 14,000 people have applied to the CAA. None of them have lost their jobs or stopped receiving any welfare benefits from the Centre or State. They haven’t faced any trouble… It is the LoP’s guarantee and request that, apply to CAA as soon as possible, your name will be on the voters’ list,” Mr Adhikari added.
The CAA is a citizenship law that allows persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan who entered into India on or before 31.12.2014 to submit applications for Indian citizenship under a special provision, according to the Home Ministry’s Indian Citizenship Online Portal.
Notably, the Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025, also carried provisions for people of the same communities who entered India due to religious persecution before December 31, 2024.
The BJP is set to organise more than 700 CAA camps across the State ahead of an impending Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the State’s electoral rolls and the Assembly polls in 2026. In West Bengal, the Matua community in particular is expected to benefit largely from the CAA and is considered as a strong votebank for the BJP.
‘Do not fear SIR’
Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar and Mr Adhikari held a joint rally at Gangarampur in the Dakshin Dinajpur district on Saturday. During the rally, Mr Majumdar said the people of West Bengal whose names or whose parents’ names are in the 2002 voters’ list “need not fear SIR” and urged Hindu foreigners to apply for citizenship under CAA provisions.
“If your name or your parents’ names do not feature in the 2002 list, you belong to one of two categories… if you’re Hindu and from Bangladesh, we have made provisions for you to become an Indian citizen under CAA,” Mr Majumdar said.
He added that the party’s fight for 2026 is of “aar-paar” (two sides of a border). This statement assumes significance in light of the stark differentiation the saffron party has made between ‘infiltrators’ and ‘refugees’ from neighbouring countries, in the context of voter list revision and CAA camps respectively.
This development follows BJP State President Samik Bhattacharya’s social media post on Friday, where he accused the West Bengal government of issuing delayed birth registrations in State-run hospitals of bordering districts. For reference, birth certificates are considered a crucial document in proving one’s eligibility during the voter list revision.
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