There are about one crore Hindu Bangladeshi refugees in West Bengal and with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill implementation the Bharatiya Janata Party believes these population can be reached they can cash it in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The bill was easily passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8 and state BJP wing hopes it to change future of these refugees living in West Bengal.
It will grant citizenship to the non-Muslims refugees who entered India fleeing Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan before December 31, 2014.
Party leader believes the bill will help BJP counter the allegation being anti-Bengali.
Following the publication of National Register of Citizens (NRC) several opposition parties including West Bengal ruling party Trinamool Congress had alleged BJP being anti-Bengali.
BJPs refugee cell convenor Mohit Roy said, “Various political parties have played with the emotions of the Bengali refugees living in the state for the past several decades neither the TMC nor the CPI(M), which boast of being champions of refugees, did nothing for the Bengali refugees.”
Roy added further that BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have made a historic decision to give them citizenship.
The Bengali refugees are mainly spread in bordering districts like North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Uttar Dinajpur and Cooch Behar.
As BJP is now considering West Bengal as a priority state, a target to 22 Lok Sabha seats has been set out of 42.
The districts in which Bengali refugees live account 10-12 seats.
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