BJP will replicate Assam model in Bengal to expel infiltrators, says party chief

The Bharatiya Janata Party will replicate Assam’s “detect, delete and deport” model to expel “Bangladeshi infiltrators” in West Bengal if voted to power in the state, PTI quoted party chief Nitin Nabin as saying on Monday.

Nabin was referring to Assam’s strategy of identifying suspected undocumented immigrants, deleting their names from electoral rolls and deporting them.

The comment came ahead of the Assembly elections in West Bengal, which are expected to take place in April or May.

Since April 2025, the police in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party have been detaining Bengali-speaking persons – mostly Muslims – and asking them to prove that they are Indian citizens.

Several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.

On Monday, speaking at a rally in Islampur in West Bengal’s Malda district, Nabin claimed that the model will be implemented “wherever these foreigners are eating into the rights of our own citizens”, the news agency reported.

Referring to the recent deletion of voters in West Bengal as part of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls, the BJP chief claimed that the Election Commission...

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