Kolkata: Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Friday expressed concern over the alleged demographic change in population in several West Bengal districts.
Adhikari, who was leading a ‘Kanya Suraksha Yatra’ in south Bengal’s Bankura town, told reporters that the TMC administration was aiding and abetting infiltrators from across Bangladesh to settle in the state at the cost of national security.
“If you travel across certain parts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Birbhum and Malda, you will be stunned to witness the rapid demographic change in vast areas of the state. If we don’t act now, the state will have to be rechristened as West Bangladesh. BJP will not let that happen,” the leader of the opposition of the West Bengal Assembly said.
He asserted that the BJP has nothing against Indian Muslims, but will do everything “to drive out Bangladeshis and Rohingiyas.” Adhikari supported the idea of a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state “to delete the names of over 17 lakh Bangladeshi/Rohingiyas” from the voter list before the 2026 assembly polls.
“The TMC is trying to stall the implementation of SIR to ensure its return to power by unfair means. But I am sure that the Mamata Banerjee government will be dislodged from power by the people of Bengal this time,” he asserted.
The rally was organised as part of the BJP’s statewide campaign till August 9 to demand the safety of women.