News Brief
Arzoo Yadav
Oct 20, 2025, 11:44 AM | Updated 11:44 AM IST
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West Bengal is set to witness at least 700 camps dedicated to Citizenship Amendment Act applications across nine districts bordering Bangladesh following Diwali and Kalipuja celebrations.
The camps, organised by various Sanatan Hindu organisations alongside West Bengal BJP leadership, represent an intensified push to boost CAA application momentum ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, according to a Economic Times report.
The initiative targets districts along the Bangladesh border, where significant populations of Hindu refugees and their descendants reside.
These border constituencies have emerged as crucial electoral battlegrounds, with the Matua community and other refugee groups forming a substantial vote bank.
The BJP has launched CAA help desks in parts of the state, facilitating citizenship applications in what party functionaries describe as the most aggressive outreach initiative to woo refugee voters.
The CAA, which grants citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India before 31 December 2014, has been a contentious political issue in Bengal.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has consistently opposed the CAA, arguing it is linked to the National Register of Citizens and warning against what she terms detention camps.
Her Trinamool Congress has made the opposition to CAA a key part of its political strategy, framing it as a threat to Bengali identity.
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