Days after coming to power, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday announced an immediate crackdown against illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators in the state.
The government gave a green signal
to the initiation of deportation proceedings against illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA.
Chief Minister Adhikari said that his government would start detecting and detaining illegal Bangladeshis, who will then be handed over to the BSF for deportation.
Speaking at Nabanna, during a land handover ceremony to the Border Security Force (BSF) for border fencing, the Chief Minister said infiltrators identified in the state would now be directly handed over to the BSF for further action in coordination with the Border Guards Bangladesh.
The Chief Minister described the policy as “Detect, Delete and Deport”.
He said that the Union Home Ministry had issued guidelines on May 14 last year directing states to identify and transfer illegal infiltrators to the BSF. He alleged that the previous Trinamool Congress government had failed to implement those directions.
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“The Indian government had sent an order on May 14, 2025, asking the Bengal government to identify Bangladeshi immigrants and hand them over to the BSF for deportation. But the previous government did not act. We will implement the order from today, arresting all such illegal immigrants and handing them over to the BSF,” he said.
Adhikari further clarified that no action would be taken against members of the seven communities protected under the CAA, provided they had entered India before December 31, 2024.
“All other illegal immigrants will be detained and handed over to the BSF…. From now on, the process of detect, delete and deport will start in Bengal,” said the Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has begun handing over land to the Border Security Force for barbed-wire fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border, ending a long-standing deadlock.
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At several Assembly election rallies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed that illegal immigration from Bangladesh was rapidly altering the demographic composition of West Bengal.
The BJP scripted a historic victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, ending years of Trinamool Congress (TMC) rule in the state.
In one of the biggest upsets of the election, Suvendu Adhikari defeated former chief minister Mamata Banerjee in her own constituency, Bhabanipur, dealing a major blow to the Trinamool Congress leadership.
The BJP’s victory was seen as a significant political shift in Bengal, with the party campaigning aggressively on issues such as governance, corruption and illegal immigration.
