A matriarch, torn: How Modi's upcoming Bengal visit has polarised a Hindu refugee community

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will start with  with citizenship amendment bill will start on Saturday at Thakurnagar, known to be hub of four million Bengali Hindu refugees. Many of them even today have not been able to get their citizenship yet, the sources in the Matua Community, a refugee Hindu sect, confirmed to THE WEEK

Modi would like to meet 102 years old patriarch of Matua community in North 24 parganas, Binapani Devi. Unfortunately at this ripe age the community leader is in the mid of tug of war between BJP and Mamata Banerjee.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sent a special emissary of her to Thakur family--Binapani Devi's family is known as--asking them not to meet the Prime Minister.

Jyotipriya Mullick, the food minister of West Bengal, said that BJP would not be able to break the unity of the Matua community in Thakurnagar, as the area is known as, and they would stand by the chief minister of West Bengal.

"We are not at all disturbed over it. He (Modi) will not get any support," said he.

The family is a broken one. While one side support BJP, the other one is committed to Mamata Banerjee, as one member of the family, Mamata Bala Thakur is a Trinamool Congress MP.

The BJP has been denied the permission to organise the rally of Prime Minister in the Thakur family ground by the pro-Trinamool group. Despite the fact that one section said that Binapani Devi would like to meet Modi, the other section has issued a statement saying that due to sickness the Matua patriarch would not be able to meet the prime minister.

Mullick said that the ground where BJP had planned to organise the rally has already been taken for the "ongoing festival".

Prime Minister is believed to be playing up the Citizenship amendment bill at Thakurnagar and tell them how that is going to help several lakhs of Matua community. Modi is all set to deliver his address at a land given away by a party member.

Modi would also address a massive rally at Durgapur apart from Thakurnagar. A day after, another BJP stalwart, Yogi Adityanath, would hit the battle ground in Bengal. The UP chief minister is all set to hold four rallies between February 3 and February 5.

Adityanath would hold rally in Balurghat, Raigunj, Purulia and Bankura, where BJP is finding itself in comfortable situation.

On February sixth, after Yogi finishes first round of campaign, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, former chief minister would come to Bengal to hold two big rallies--one in Murshidabad and the other in Dum Dum (Kolkata). The first round would complete with Modi holding a big rally in Jalpaiguri.

Apart from Modi, Yogi and Shivraj, Arjun Munda and Dharmendra Pradhan would also address several rallies in West Bengal in first round of campaign.