Minister of State (MoS) Shantanu Thakur is likely to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President J P Nadda on Monday on the Matua issue and also likely to discuss suspended BJP leaders Joy Prakash Majumdar and Ritesh Tiwari. Thakur is likely to meet Nadda and union home minister after the budget.

“We have to discuss certain issues like CAA with the union home minister. I will discuss this after the budget,” Thakur said. CAA is a longstanding demand of the matua community and there is pressure on us, he added.

Thakur said hat he will raise the grievances of former state vice-president Joy Prakash Majumdar and Ritesh Tiwari with the central leadership, who were recently suspended from the party. Thakur, on his way to Delhi, also said that no leaders should be called ‘dissidents’ or ‘revolting’.

Leaders of West Bengal’s Matua community were disgruntled and decided to urge the BJP’s central leadership to include the community’s representatives in the party’s state committee.

A decision to this effect was taken at a recent meeting convened by Shantanu Thakur, a minister of state and leader of Matua Mahasangha, with the BJP MLAs of the community in the Matua-dominated belt in Bengal. Thakur has convened several meetings on the issue.

Reacting to Shantanu Thakur’s comments today, BJP chief spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said, “The party does not want a single worker to go away. The party will put all necessary effort to keep its works together.”

“If they have resigned from the party, it is not good for the party. When Shantanu Thakur, being a central minister, has decided to talk on the issue with the BJP central leadership, they will listen to him,” Bhattacharya said.

Meanwhile, suspended BJP leader Ritesh Tiwari claimed that BJP State President is being misled. Some leaders are misleading him as he is new to the post.