Constituency watch: Past records, Matua sentiment keep BJP ahead of turncoat TMC opponent at Ranaghat

Kolkata, April 15 (IANS) At Ranaghat Lok Sabha constituency in Nadia District of West Bengal, the BJP seems to be at an advantageous position this time.

This is apparent from the records of the last two elections as well as the issues dominating the constituency where a substantial percentage of the voters belong to the Matua community.

The BJP has re-nominated its sitting Lok Sabha MP from Ranaghat, a post-delimitation constituency created before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Jagannath Sarkar.

In 2019, Sarkar got elected after defeating Trinamool Congress’ Rupali Das by a margin of 2,33,699 votes.

Ranaghat is going for polls in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 13.

Again, even in the midst of a landslide victory of the Trinamool Congress in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, BJP candidates managed victories from five out of seven Assembly constituencies in Ranaghat.

The Trinamool Congress has fielded Mukut Mani Adhikari, who is officially still the elected BJP legislator from the Ranaghat-Dakshin Assembly constituency, one of the seven under Ranaghat Lok Sabha, as per the records of the state Assembly.

The BJP is also raking up the issue by questioning the “political morality” of Adhikari for keeping his BJP legislator status intact.

Adhikari’s nomination has also irked a section of the ruling party leadership at Ranaghat and they are reportedly refraining from active campaigning in favour of the party candidate.

The CPI(M) has fielded party veteran Alakesh Das, who is a two-time party Lok Sabha member from the erstwhile and pre-delimitation Nabadwip Lok Sabha constituency in the district.

For Ranaghat, the recent notification from the Centre on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has given the BJP an extra-edge, considering that Matuas, a Backward Class community came to West Bengal as refugees from neighbouring Bangladesh.

The recently-notified Citizenship (Amendment) Rules 2024, pave the way for enforcing the CAA, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians who came to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014.

Like Bangaon in North 24 Parganas District, which too has a substantial percentage of Matua voters, the notification also triggered celebration among the community at Ranaghat.

Sensing danger, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee started issuing notes of caution that enrolling at the CAA portal would mean automatic cancellation of citizenship.

However, the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari accused the Chief Minister of misleading the people since the CAA aims to “grant citizenship”, and not “take it away".

Since its inception, Ranaghat had been a stronghold of the Trinamool Congress.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the Trinamool Congress candidate Dr Sucharu Ranjan Haldar got elected by a margin of a little over one lakh votes.

In 2014, TMC’s Tapas Mondal further increased the winning margin to little over two lakh votes.

However, the pattern changed in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when riding over the Matua sentiment, BJP’s Jagannath Sarkar won by a margin of 2,33,699 votes.

The major tourist attraction of Ranaghat is the iconic ISKCON temple at Mayapur.

The constituency is also famous nationally for handloom sarees produced at Phulia in Santipur, one of the seven Assembly constituencies under Ranaghat. The weavers mostly came as refugees from neighbouring Bangladesh and started residing there and making the place a handloom hub.