Kolkata: It was a family dispute that brought Santanu Thakur into politics and now he is one of the most influential leaders from the Matua community who is crucial in West Bengal’s politics.
Thirty-eight years of Santanu Thakur, Lok Sabha member of the Bongoan parliamentary seat, who was sworn in as the Union Minister tonight, was one of the heewers from the influential Thakurbari – the socio-religious sect formed by his ancestors.
Harichand Guruchand Thakur – to lift the matuas, the second largest caste community of the country.
Graduates by education, Santanu, the oldest son of former TMC Minister Manjul Krishna Thakur, is more in the development of the matuas through various social services run by Thakurbari in Thakuragar and have never been political.
The matuas, with the size of the population and their tendency to choose en BLOC, just like a minority, making a sound bank that should be imitated by all political parties since the nineties.
The head of TMC Mamata Banerjee first reached the matuas about a decade ago.
He nominated Manjul Thakur as a candidate in 2011 and triggered him in his ministerial minister.
In 2014, Brother Elder Manjul Kapil Krishna Thakur was nominated as a TMC candidate from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat, which he won his hand.
But it was a sudden death of Kapil Krishna in October 2014 which began a family dispute between his widow Mamata Bala Thakur and his brother Manjul Krishna.
Manjul wants the youngest son of Subrata Thakur to be nominated by the party for the election of Begun from Bongaon’s seat, but the party’s leadership instead decided to nominate Mamata Bala.
An angry Manjul Krishna quit the country’s cabinet to join BJP and get a subrata, a party ticket for the contest from the chair in February 2015, but he was third.
Even though Manjul Krishna returned to TMC after a few months but had never been appointed back to the Ministry; The matter of the party in the area was handed over to Mamata Bala, the newly chosen TMC MP Bongoan.
But after his father was rejected by tickets in the 2016 Assembly poll and cornered in the internal politics of Thakburbari’s control, Santanu began to hobnobbing with the Safron Party.
It was in February 2019, after the Matua Community Social-Religious Meeting, which was seconded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that Sanatanu decided to join active politics, and within one month, he was given a nomination from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat.
Looking for the promise of CAA and NRC implementation, Santanu won the chair by beating his aunt and became one of BJP’s main leaders in the state.
He also accompanied Modi to Bangladesh during his last visit to Dhaka in the midst of Bengal’s poll, which also included a tour to Orakandi in the Gopalgank district in Bangladesh where the founder of Matua Sect and Social Thakur was born.
Voting patterns in the selection of the newly held assemblies show that the matuas did not choose EN-BLOC for one party and would rather divide their voices between TMC in power and BJP.
Induction in the Ministry of Union is seen as an effort to restore the community, which advises influence on at least five seats Lok Sabha in Nadia, North and South Korea in the Parganas district, ahead of 2024 general elections.