BJP deploys ‘Bangladeshi Infiltrators’ Rhetoric In Bihar, Too 

'Infiltration’ of Muslims from Bangladesh, an issue that Narendra Modi brought to India’s political mainstream during his 2014 prime ministerial run campaign, has made its mark in the Bihar assembly election campaign as well. 

On Sunday, four days before the first phase polling, while addressing a public rally at Arrah in Bhojpur district of southern Bihar, Modi alleged that the opposition alliance partners, including Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress party, were  “united in their body and mind” to protect illegal foreign migrants. 

Taking potshots at them, Modi called the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi-led Voter Adhikar Yatra (rally for electoral rights)—taken out in Bihar in August to protect the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls—as marches in support of illegal foreign migrants. 

He alleged that the RJD’s pre-2005 rule created a situation that forced Bihar residents to migrate out of the state in large numbers and then these parties “settled in” illegal foreign migrants in Bihar. 

“Will you allow infiltrators to grab your wealth and determine your future? Shouldn’t infiltrators be evicted? Are the protectors of infiltrators not sinners?” Modi asked and sought votes in favour of the The BJP-Janata Dal (United)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates.  

His remarks came four days after the Union home minister targetted Bihar’s opposition alliance, the Mahagathbandhan, for sheltering infiltrators from Bangladesh to use the illegal entrants as “vote banks.” 

“Both Lalu and Rahul became protectors of Bangladeshi infiltrators,” Shah alleged while addressing a public meeting at Begusarai district in northern Bihar. “Today I have come to ask the people of Begusarai, should Bangladeshi infiltrators be included in the Bihar price payer list?” he asked. 

Shah promised that if voters elect all four of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates in the district, “the BJP will do the work of selecting and removing every infiltrator from the land of Bihar.”

The BJP has used the ‘infiltration’ issue—referring to Muslims of alleged foreign origin—in different parts of the country as a key campaign component.  In Bihar, the saffron camp’s charge of infiltration from Bangladesh changing local demography chiefly centres on the Seemanchal region in eastern part of the state, where most of Bihar’s Muslim population leave in the four districts of Kishanganj, Katihar, Araria and Purnia. This region has 24 of Bihar’s 243 assembly seats.  

This region shares its border with West Bengal’s Muslim-majority districts of Murshidabad and Malda, both of which share long borders with Bangladesh. It has had a Bengali-speaking Muslim population for many years. 

In the Jharkhand assembly election last year, the BJP had deployed the same ‘infiltration’ charge focussing on the two eastern districts of Pakur and Sahebganj that share their borders with Bihar’s Seemanchal and West Bengal’s Murshidabad. 

During his campaign in Bihar, Delhi BJP leader Ramesh Bidhuri said that ‘infiltration’ was the biggest issue in Seemanchal and that removing them tops their list of priorities for the region.

Bihar opposition leaders sharply criticised the BJP’s campaign on ‘infiltration.’ Mahagathbandhan partner CPI(ML)(Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya asked for the number of illegal foreign migrants whose names have been struck off following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. “Let people first know how many foreigners have the SIR identified,” he has said. 

Notably, while the Election Commission of India (ECI) had cited removing foreigners from voter lists as one of the reasons for the special screening of the electoral roll, the commission has not yet given any data on how many foreigners’ names were deleted through this process. 

Taking digs at the BJP’s campaign, the All India Majlis Ittehad e Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief  Asaduddin Owaisi said that there are infiltrators in the Seemanchal region. 

While Owaisi, whose party is not part of any alliance, has long been trying to create a support base in the Seemanchal region, the success rate has been low as of now. In the 2020 Bihar state election, his party won five seats, but four of those MLAs joined Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in 2022. 

In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won only one of the four Lok Sabha seats in the region. This year, the AIMIM is trying hard to use the BJP’s anti-infiltrator pitch to its own advantage for uniting Muslims under its leadership, while the opposition alliance is keen on retaining their leadership position in addressing the citizenship question