The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will roll out Assam’s “detect, delete and deport” model in West Bengal if it comes to power, the party’s national president Nitin Nabin said on March 2, vowing action against alleged Bangladeshi infiltrators.
Speaking at a rally in Islampur in Malda district while flagging off the party’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ ahead of the Assembly elections, Nabin said the framework currently being followed in Assam would be replicated in Bengal.
“We have recently formed the government in Bihar. In Assam, we are implementing the ‘detect, delete and deport’ policy against Bangladeshi infiltrators. We will introduce the same wherever foreigners are encroaching upon the rights of our citizens,” he said.
The phrase “detect, delete and deport” refers to identifying suspected illegal immigrants, removing their names from electoral rolls and initiating legal deportation proceedings. Nabin also cited recent revisions in the voter list, claiming that the Election Commission had struck off more than 50 lakh names of alleged Bangladeshi infiltrators.
“If those 50 lakh names had not been deleted, welfare schemes meant for the people of Bengal would have gone to infiltrators,” he alleged.
In a politically loaded announcement, Nabin said that if the BJP forms the next government in the state, Islampur would be renamed “Ishwarpur.” During his speech, he repeatedly addressed the crowd as residents of “Ishwarpur.”
He linked the proposed renaming to the region’s historical legacy, referring to Rajbanshi reformer Thakur Panchanan Barma, the last Hindu ruler of Bengal Lakshman Sen, and freedom fighter Purna Chandra Das as figures connected to the area’s heritage.
The remarks underline the BJP’s sharpened campaign pitch in Bengal, with illegal immigration and identity politics emerging as key themes ahead of the polls.