A DAY after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced Rs 5,000 monthly aid and other sops for migrant workers returning to the state, Governor C V Ananda Bose in an unusual move recommended his own initiatives for migrants and sent a proposal in this regard to the state as well as the Centre.
As the Trinamool Congress government plays on Bengali sentiments, raising incidents of ill-treatment of migrants from the state in the Centre’s push against “Bangladeshis”, the fact that Bose has joined the issue is significant.
West Bengal is headed for Assembly elections in early 2026 and is expected to be the next state in the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision drive. Given that the stated goal of this is to weed out “foreigners”, essentially “Bangladeshis”, the concerns of Bengali migrants are set to take centrestage.
As part of his recommendations, the Governor suggested the creation of a ‘West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Registration Portal’, signing of Memoranda of Understanding with states that are major destinations for migrants from the state, and appointment of labour welfare officers in key migrant hubs, who can help migrants access facilities such as rations, healthcare and insurance.
Bose recommended that migrants receive a physical card on registration with the portal, the portal be linked to Aadhaar, and include the skill profiles of workers. The Governor also suggested the setting up of a single-window agency to address the grievances of migrant workers.
On Monday, Banerjee announced her government’s financial scheme for migrants, as a response to the Centre’s anti-Bangladeshi drive which, she said, was causing many Bengali migrants to return home in panic from different parts of the country.
Addressing mediapersons, the CM said: “Twenty-two lakh of our migrant workers work in other states. We have decided to stand by those who have been tortured and are returning to West Bengal without anything. We have decided to launch this scheme, Sramosree, for their rehabilitation.”
The TMC has been raising instances of Bengal migrant workers getting detained during verification drives being conducted to identify Bangladeshis, with at least some pushed into Bangladesh by the authorities as a result. Families of several of those deported have filed habeas corpus petitions in the High Court.
Questioning Bose’s motives, TMC leader Jayprakash Majumder said, “This Governor does not have any idea of the ground realities in Bengal. He sees Bengal through BJP leaders’ eyes. He is busy trying to make BJP leaders happy.”
Leader of the Opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said it were the TMC government’s promises that were a sham. “No migrant labourer will be taken in by the bluff of Mamata Banerjee,” he said, adding that Rs 5,000 a month was no incentive considering that migrants earned much more elsewhere.
Bose has had an on again-off again relationship with the Banerjee government. It had started out on a friendlier note than the CM’s rocky ties with Bose’s predecessor Jagdeep Dhankhar. But while public showdowns are fewer now, the bonhomie has been long gone. And is set to erode further with the Governor’s move on migrants – an issue that the TMC has been casting as its main plank for the polls.
Apart from earning it the support of migrants and their families, the issue bolsters the TMC’s campaign that the BJP is a party of “bohiragatos (outsiders)” and has no affiliation with Bengal.
“A majority of the migrant workers from our state belong to the minority community. Our campaign reiterates that only the TMC is standing behind them,” a senior party leader earlier told The Indian Express.
The TMC also attacked Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma recently for his anti-Bangladeshi remarks, saying: “Where does this hatred stem from? Why this contempt for Bengalis and Bangla? Is it because the BJP was humiliated and rejected by the people of Bengal? If this is how you plan to capture Bengal, through HATE, BIGOTRY, and XENOPHOBIA, we pity you. The people of Bengal will not just reject you again, they will do so with an even bigger mandate.”
TMC Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra slammed the BJP government in Odisha over the detention of several Bengali workers in the state on suspicion of being Bangladeshis. Such incidents had never occurred in “23 years of Naveen Patnaik’s BJD government”, she said, adding: “Fifty per cent of Odisha’s tourism revenue comes from Bengali tourists. They are the ones who stay in your hotels, eat at your restaurants, visit your pilgrimage sites. What if Bengali tourists stop going to Odisha?”