Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has declared Mamata Bala Thakur as one of its four candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls. A former Lok Sabha MP, Thakur has been handpicked by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for a reason: she is a prominent leader from the Matua community.
The ruling party in West Bengal announced Thakur’s candidature for election to the Upper House a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will be notified before the Lok Sabha polls slated April-May this year.
The CAA, under which they hope to be granted Indian citizenship, has been a long-standing demand of the Matua community residing in West Bengal.
The Matuas form the second-largest Scheduled Caste (SC) community in West Bengal after the Rajbanshis. A Dalit sub-caste traditionally known as Chandalas, the Matua-Namasudras historically resided in the eastern and central parts of the then-undivided Bengal (now Bangladesh). The 19th-century saw this caste group mobilise under a socio-religious protest sect named Matua, which got them their current name.
The Matua-Namasudra hold sway in more than 40 of West Bengal’s 294 assembly seats. They also have a decisive presence in Bongaon, Ranaghat and Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seats, besides pockets in North Bengal.
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A family feud in Thakurnagar
In 2011, Mamata Banerjee’s party had fielded Matua leader Manjul Thakur from the Gaighata assembly seat. Thakur, the younger son of Bina Pani Debi — matriarch of the Matua Mahasangha reform movement — went on to win the seat and was made a junior minister in Mamata’s cabinet.
For the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, the TMC fielded Manjul’s elder brother Kapil Krishna Thakur from Bongaon seat, which the party won. But Kapil’s sudden death barely five months later triggered a family feud in Thakurnagar, the birthplace of the Matua sect.
For the bypoll, Manjul Thakur wanted the party to field his younger son Subrata but TMC gave Kapil’s widow Mamata Bala Thakur a ticket.
A miffed Manjul Thakur quit the cabinet and joined the BJP, ensuring a BJP ticket for his son. When the bypoll was held in 2015, Mamata Bala Thakur won the Lok Sabha seat for TMC securing 43.27 percent of votes. BJP’s Subrata Thakur came in third with a vote share of 24.17 percent. His son’s loss made Manjul Thakur return to the TMC but the party had by then found in Mamata Bala Thakur its Matua face. Subrata Thakur later went on to become a BJP MLA from Gaighata, a seat reserved for SCs, in 2021.
In 2016, when Manjul Thakur wasn’t given a TMC ticket to fight the state polls, his elder son Shantanu began to mingle with the BJP, eventually securing a BJP ticket from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat in 2019. Riding on the BJP’s promise of implementing CAA, Shantanu won from Bongaon with a vote share of 48.85 percent, defeating his aunt Mamata Bala Thakur of the TMC, who came in second with 40.92 percent votes.
Given the numbers in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, Mamata Bala Thakur is all set to enter the Rajya Sabha as a Trinamool MP from the Matua community at a time when the central government plans to notify the CAA rules ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
According to political analyst Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, her nomination is indeed important for the TMC. “If the Centre notifies the rules before the elections, the TMC needs a voice who can criticise the law as they continue to oppose its implementation. More importantly, they need a Matua voice and a community representative who can look into the fine print and point out loopholes if any to target the law,” he told ThePrint.
BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta, however, said it is a given that the TMC would criticise the CAA.
“Mamata Banerjee can continue to criticise CAA and she is, but the truth is without the legal process, one cannot become a citizen. She says since Matuas have a voter card, they are citizens, that’s not the truth. But that is what she will continue to tell Matuas. But these under the table methods can’t be counted for being granted citizenship,” he told ThePrint.
The TMC, on the other hand, sees the Rajya Sabha nomination as Mamata Bala Thakur’s reward for the work she did for the Matua community.
“Mamata Bala Thakur is a former MP, she has been working hard on the ground for the Matua community. She has always been a bridge for the TMC and Matuas and that is why our honourable chairperson has rewarded her,” TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy told ThePrint.
He added, “As far as CAA is concerned, Mamata Banerjee has made our stand clear, but could Matua leader Shantanu Thakur who is Minister of State (MoS), shipping, in Modi’s cabinet, have become an MP if he wasn’t an Indian citizen? The BJP is only trying to create confusion amongst the Matua community, who are already citizens.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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