Overview
- A widely shared video shows Ranaghat MP Jagannath Sarkar saying India and Bangladesh “will become one” and that barbed-wire fencing would go if the BJP wins, a remark he made on October 30 in Krishnaganj.
- TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee accused the BJP of hypocrisy and urged the party to suspend Sarkar, citing the party’s push for a Special Intensive Revision to identify alleged Bangladeshi infiltrators.
- BJP chief whip Sankar Ghosh said the party would review the footage and examine its contents before responding to demands for action.
- Union minister Sukanta Majumdar said he believes Sarkar was misquoted and asserted that existing border fences will remain and unfenced stretches will be covered.
- The controversy is especially sensitive in the border constituency of Ranaghat, which has a large Matua population, and comes as West Bengal continues SIR-related voter roll scrutiny along a long and partly unfenced frontier.