Residents of Former Indian Enclaves in Bangladesh Refrain from Backing Trinamul in Lok Sabha Elections

Residents of the former Indian enclaves that joined Bangladesh in 2015, but who still hold Indian citizenship, have chosen not to back Trinamul in the current Lok Sabha elections.

There are around 1.5 lakh of these irate people.

We have been compelled to relocate from our ancestral lands and houses in Bangladesh to Indian settlements since the 1970s. But the government of Bengal did nothing to assist us in getting well after the enclaves were traded, and only a small number of the hundreds who arrived here just before the exchange in 2015 received assistance. Ismail Mian, secretary of the Uttarbanga Chitmahal Udbastu Sangram Joutha Committee, said that this is regrettable since the Center has spent almost Rs 3,000 crore for reconstruction.

He said, "We have always supported Trinamul in elections, but this time we will not do so in protest of the state's indifference."

There were 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in the Cooch Behar district and 111 Indian enclaves, or landlocked areas of Indian territory, in Bangladesh. The residents of these enclaves were given the choice to either get new citizenship or keep their current one when they merged with the mainlands of Bangladesh and India on July 31, 2015.

Approximately 970 individuals arrived in India from Bangladesh, and the state government gave them lodging and other amenities.

However, early settlers claimed that thousands of other families that arrived in the 1970s received no assistance from the state. "We arrived from Indian communities in Bangladesh years prior to the exchange," said committee member Jyotirmoy Roy.

He claims that over 1.5 lakh voters, or about 25,000 such households, reside in the districts of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar.

"We will not support Trinamul this time if the state doesn't take any meaningful action to rehabilitate us." The state may get in touch with the Center if necessary to request further funding for this reason," Roy said.

The committee's head, Jagadish Roy Pradhan, said that although thousands of individuals had registered with the government as residents of former enclaves, very few had received compensation for the land and real estate they were forced to abandon in Bangladesh.

This shows that the majority of residents received no compensation. Pradhan said that the state need to bring it up with the Center.

In response to these claims, Trinamul accused the BJP of deceiving the residents while the BJP criticized the latter.

"The Bengali government received funding from the Center to assist with the rehabilitation of enclave residents. According to Bapi Goswami, the head of the BJP in Jalpaiguri district, "we suspect the state spent the money on other expenses while being apathetic towards these people."

Goswami's Trinamul counterpart, Mahua Gope, retorted, saying that the state and the Center worked together to implement the rehabilitation plan. The BJP is attempting to deceive these folks in order to get votes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.