BJP to replicate Assam’s ‘detect, delete, deport’ model in Bengal; Nitin Nabin vows to rename Islampur

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will implement Assam’s “detect, delete and deport” framework to identify and expel alleged Bangladeshi infiltrators in West Bengal if voted to power, the party’s national president Nitin Nabin said on March 2.

Addressing a rally in Islampur in Malda district while flagging off the party’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ ahead of the Assembly elections, Nabin asserted that the model currently being followed in Assam would be replicated in Bengal.

“We have recently formed the government in Bihar. In Assam, we are following the ‘detect, delete and deport’ model for Bangladeshi infiltrators. We will implement the same wherever these foreigners are eating into the rights of our own citizens,” he said.

The “detect, delete and deport” formulation refers to the identification of suspected illegal immigrants, deletion of their names from electoral rolls, and subsequent legal deportation proceedings. Nabin also referred to recent deletions in the state’s electoral rolls, claiming that the Election Commission had removed the names of more than 50 lakh alleged Bangladeshi infiltrators.

“If names of 50 lakh Bangladeshis weren’t deleted by the EC, then the Centre’s welfare schemes, meant for the people of Bengal, would have benefited the infiltrators,” he claimed.

In a politically significant announcement, Nabin said that if the BJP forms the government in the state, Islampur would be renamed “Ishwarpur.” Throughout his speech, he repeatedly addressed the gathering as residents of “Ishwarpur.”

He said the proposed renaming was linked to the region’s historical legacy, citing Rajbanshi reformer Thakur Panchanan Barma, the last Hindu ruler of Bengal, Lakshman Sen, and revolutionary freedom fighter Purna Chandra Das as figures associated with the area’s heritage.

The remarks signal a sharp escalation in the BJP’s campaign narrative in Bengal, placing illegal immigration and identity politics at the centre of its electoral strategy.