The Trinamool Congress’s nomination of candidates to the Rajya Sabha has been an exercise in balancing local and national aspirations ever since the party came to power in West Bengal in 2011. On February 11, when the Trinamool nominated four candidates to the Upper House, including three women, it continued a trend which it has adhered to for the past 12 years.
Mamata Bala Thakur, one of the three women nominated, is an interesting choice considering the politics over the implementation of The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, in the State, and the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The West Bengal BJP leadership, particularly Bongaon MP and Union Minister of State for Shipping Santanu Thakur, has been promising nearly every week to implement the CAA. He has been trying to assure the electorate of the constituency bordering Bangladesh that he will fulfil what he had promised in 2019.
Mamata Bala Thakur is a two-time Lok Sabha MP from Bongaon and is the BJP MP’s relative. Both she and Santanu Thakur hail from the family of the founders of the Matua sect, mostly comprising Dalits who shifted to West Bengal from East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh) without proper citizenship documents. The Matuas, who constitute one-fifth of West Bengal’s Scheduled Caste population, have suffered for decades as a result. Over the past few years, the Matuas and their citizenship have been at the centre of the BJP’s politics around the CAA. Mamata Bala Thakur has been nominated to challenge the BJP’s support base among the Matuas. With her nomination, the number of women Rajya Sabha MPs from the Trinamool will stand at five.
