TMC MP Mamata Bala Thakur falls ill after 13-day hunger strike over electoral roll issue, hospitalised

Earlier on Sunday evening Trinamool’s All India General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s delegation, led by Industry Minister Sashi Panja, reached Thakurbari with a message. Honoring the message, Mamata Bala announced the decision to call off the 13-day hunger strike at night. However, before she could formally end her fast on Monday afternoon as scheduled, she fell ill.

Before being taken to the hospital, Mamata Bala said, “My body has weakened as I haven’t eaten anything for a long time. I feel weak, there are other problems also.”

In the wake of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) rollout in West Bengal and 11 other states, panic has gripped Bengal’s Matua community amid fears of their names being excluded from voter lists. The situation has left both the BJP and the Trinamool Congress in a quandary in the crucial Matua bastion with a split in the community’s first family becoming even more evident. Even as most Matuas have Aadhaar and voter cards, they fear these could be rendered meaningless during the SIR exercise. The Matuas, mainly belonging to the Namasudra community, had migrated from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) due to religious persecution and communal tensions. While TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Mamatabala Thakur’s supporters have sat on a hunger strike protesting against the SIR, BJP’s Union minister Shantanu Thakur and his brother have reached out to the community. Shantanu Thakur, the Bongaon MP and the BJP’s most prominent Matua face, has repeatedly attempted to reassure the community on the matter, but his statements and assurances have failed to calm frayed nerves.