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Mamata Banerjee

Parties court Bengal’s Matuas as citizenship anxieties cloud key vote

As West Bengal heads for the final phase of polls on Wednesday, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and challenger Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are placing calculated bets on one single community, which both see as pivotal to the make-or-break game - the roughly three million-strong Matuas concentrated in villages along the border with Bangladesh.

On the campaign trail: Bengal before the final vote

On a sweltering Sunday afternoon, Mamata Banerjee stepped out in her trade mark rubber slippers and white sari with a simple, almost austere border at Chakraberia, in the heart of her Bhabanipur constituency, from where she had stormed out last night, protesting the loud use of mikes by rival BJP workers to drown out her campaign meet.