WB: BJP MP's comments on removal of fences along Indo-Bangla border spark controversy

Calcutta: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Jagannath Sarkar's comments about removing fences along the India-Bangla border and becoming one with Bangladesh if the party is voted to power in West Bengal in 2026 have sparked a political row in the eastern state.

“We promise that if we win the election this time, we will not maintain the barbed wire fences between India and Bangladesh. We used to be one country. They (India and Bangladesh) used to be one country. In future, they would become one again,” Sarkar said at a political rally in his constituency on Thursday.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place in West Bengal in 2026. The ECI has already introduced the SIR in the state to weed out bogus voters. The BJP has alleged that many of these bogus voters are Bangladeshis who came to India illegally.

He also said, “If the Trinamool Congress (TMC) comes to power, even then the fences will disappear. But that would become Bangladesh.”

West Bengal shares an approximately 2,216 km long border with Bangladesh – the longest stretch of international border shared by a state in India with a neighboring country. While around 1,647 km have been fenced so far, another 569 km is yet to be covered with fencing, the Rajya Sabha was informed in August this year. Fences cannot be erected for around 112 km due to the terrain with several rivers.

Seepage, human trafficking and smuggling are major problems along this porous border. Senior BJP leaders had repeatedly accused the TMC-led government in the state of not providing land for construction of fences.

The TMC hit back saying that the BJP had misled the people of the state and asked the party to suspend the MP.

“BJP leadership's hypocrisy has sunk to new depths. @BJP4India MP from Ranaghat Jagannath Sarkar declares that there will be no borders between INDIA AND BANGLADESH when BJP comes to power – both nations will become ONE again! On the other hand, the same BJP government, including @HMOIndia Amit Shah, keeps accusing the West Bengal government of not giving any land to “PROTECT” its BORDERS OWN MP wants to delete!” Abhishek Banerjee, TMC MP and party national general secretary, wrote on X on Saturday.

“I think he was misquoted. How can there be no fence? Barbed wire fence is already there. Fences would also be constructed in the unfenced sections,” Union Minister and BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar told mediapersons.