In a synchronised political offensive launched a day after the publication of West Bengal’s post-SIR electoral rolls, the BJP on Sunday sought to convert the deletion of names into its central political plank, alleging that “over 50 lakh infiltrators” had been weeded out and declaring that “time is up for illegal immigrants” in the state.
Flagging off the party’s 5,000-km ‘Poriborton Yatra’ from multiple districts, BJP national president Nitin Nabin claimed in Cooch Behar that most of those removed from the rolls were “infiltrators” who had secured fake documents, availed government jobs and cornered welfare benefits meant for genuine citizens.
After the 2019 surge and the 2021 setback, the West Bengal BJP launched ‘Poriborton Yatra’, its most expansive statewide mobilisation in recent years, in a bid to revive momentum, sharpen anti-incumbency against the TMC and test its rebuilt grassroots machinery ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
“More than 50 lakh infiltrators have been removed from the voter list. These infiltrators were not only violating the rights of legitimate citizens, but also jeopardising the security of the country,” he said, sharpening the party’s citizenship narrative barely two months before the Assembly polls.
Addressing a rally in Garbeta before launching another leg of the yatra, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan alleged that the TMC’s objections to the SIR stem from its fear that the “votebank of infiltrators” would no longer be available in the upcoming polls.
Pradhan claimed that after the SIR, only genuine citizens remain on the rolls and that “ghosts and infiltrators” have been omitted, while conceding that isolated technical omissions of genuine voters, if any, would be corrected.
In Krishnanagar, Union minister JP Nadda alleged that continued infiltration would render Bengal’s “original inhabitants” a minority.
He accused the TMC of turning the state into a “hub of infiltrators” and blocking central schemes such as Ayushman Bharat, thereby depriving nearly 40 lakh families of health cover up to Rs 5 lakh.
Nabin, invoking the TMC’s once-resonant slogan of ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’, asked whether the promised “Sonar Bangla” had yielded development or “corruption, anarchy and exploitation”.
He also accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of rushing to courts “at midnight” to shield infiltrators while allegedly ignoring issues of women’s safety.
The TMC, however, rejected the BJP’s infiltration narrative, maintaining that the SIR risks disenfranchising genuine voters and accusing the saffron party of weaponising the exercise to polarise the electorate ahead of the polls.