Even as he was on a visit to neighbouring Bangladesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left no stone unturned to woo the Matuas – a community that could influence the outcome of the polls in several assembly constituencies in West Bengal.
He not only visited and paid obeisance at a sacred shrine of the Matuas at Orakandi in Bangladesh but also pledged to upgrade a local middle school for girls and build a new primary school. He eulogized the Hindu Vaishnavite sect’s founder Harichand Thakur, who was born in a nearby village in 1812, but spent most of his life and died at Orakandi in 1878. He also recalled his meeting with the community’s late matriarch, ‘Boro Ma’ Bina Pani Devi, at Thakur Nagar in West Bengal ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
“Today, I am having the same feeling which my Matua brothers and sisters living in India experience when they come to Orakandi (in Bangladesh). When I first visited Bangladesh in 2015, I hoped that someday I would be able to come here. My wish has been fulfilled today,” the Prime Minister said.
Modi commenced his two-day visit to the neighbouring country on Friday and visited the shrine of the Matuas at Orakandi on Saturday, the day 30 of the 294 constituencies in West Bengal went to polls in the first of the eight phases of voting for the assembly elections.
He visited the Thakur Bari in Orakandi and paid obeisance to Harichand Thakur, who founded the sect out of a reformist movement in the early 19th century. The sect comprised Namashudras, Chamars and Malis, who were then treated as untouchables by the upper caste Hindus of undivided Bengal.
“My visit to the Orakandi Thakurbari is an experience I will remember for life. This is a very sacred place, which is closely associated with the Matua Community," the Prime Minister posted on Twitter.
The Matuas grew in number in West Bengal as many of them migrated from erstwhile East Pakistan after the partition and continued to do so even after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. They now account for nearly 17 per cent of the population of West Bengal and can influence the poll-results in 40-45 of the total 294 assembly constituencies in the state.
The Matuas of West Bengal have been a trusted support base for the TMC in the past several elections in the state. Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of the state since 2011, had a very close relationship with the matriarch of the community, Bina Pani Devi, till the centenarian died in 2019. The BJP, however, has been trying to make a dent in the TMC’s vote-bank. The saffron party now has an MP from the community – Shantanu Thakur, one of the grandsons of “Boro Ma”, who accompanied the Prime Minister to Orakandi on Saturday.
On the second day of his visit to Bangladesh, the Prime Minister also visited Jashoreshwari Kali Mandir, one of the 51 Shakti Peethas spread across the subcontinent and much revered by the Hindus.