Mathurapur (WB), March 2 Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday intensified the BJP's campaign against infiltration, stating that while "only the names of infiltrators are being removed now" from the voter rolls, they would be "expelled from the state" once the party comes to power with a full majority in West Bengal.
Addressing the BJP's Poriborton Yatra here in the South 24 Parganas district, his first visit to the state since the publication of the revised electoral rolls on Saturday, Shah said that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had turned Bengal into a "swarg (heaven) for infiltrators" and alleged that the security of the border state was compromised because the ruling dispensation allowed illegal immigration.
"Bengal is a border state. The TMC cannot ensure security because they allow infiltration. Only the BJP can provide security to a border state like Bengal," he said.
His remarks come in the context of the post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral rolls published on Saturday, which recorded 63.66 lakh deletions, 8.3 per cent of the electorate, since the exercise began in November, reducing the voter base to just over 7.04 crore and significantly redrawing constituency arithmetic ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
"I want to assure Hindu refugees that none of them will lose their citizenship," he said, seeking to distinguish between what the BJP terms "infiltrators" and persecuted minorities who migrated from neighbouring countries.
"Infiltration and corruption will stop when the BJP comes to power with a full majority," Shah said, repeating the charge that the TMC government under Mamata Banerjee had failed to secure the borders.
In a sharp personal attack, he alleged that Banerjee was "busy inaugurating temples" while "allowing the construction of the Babri Masjid in Bengal", and claimed that the exit of TMC leader Humayun Kabir was part of a "well-crafted conspiracy" to facilitate the construction of such a mosque.
Kabir in December last year laid the foundation stone for a mosque – modelled on Ayodhya's Babri Masjid – at Rejinagar in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.
"If the people here make the mistake of voting again for the TMC, Bengal will have a government run by nephew Abhishek Banerjee and not by Mamata Didi," Shah said, seeking to revive the BJP's "bhaipo" (nephew) attack line.
In a sweeping electoral reset barely months before the 2026 Assembly polls, the 116-day SIR drive, the first intensive revision since 2002, has also placed more than 60.06 lakh electors in the "under adjudication" category, their eligibility now subject to judicial scrutiny in the coming weeks.