Asim Sarkar, the BJP MLA from Haringhata in West Bengal’s Nadia district, has built his public image around hardline Hindutva politics, often targeting Muslims and advocating for the swift implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). A member of the influential Matua community comprising Hindu Dalits who migrated from Bangladesh. Sarkar has used this base to push his ideological goals while frequently stoking communal tensions.

On April 30, 2025, at a BJP protest in North 24 Parganas against the Pahalgam terror attack, Sarkar delivered a speech filled with anti-Muslim hate. He targeted the Quran, claiming that certain verses “make one’s blood boil” and alleged that madrasas brainwash Muslim children. He accused Muslims of never accepting Hindus as friends and claimed they are looking for chances to “capture and brutally kill” Hindus.

Sarkar has also used the recent deactivation of thousands of Aadhaar cards across West Bengal mostly affecting Hindu Dalit migrants from Bangladesh to call for the urgent enforcement of the CAA. 

He claimed the deactivations prove why people should vote for the BJP in the coming elections. Despite acknowledging that many of these migrants had entered India post-2014 with valid passports and later overstayed, he dismissed their Aadhaar, PAN, and ration cards as irrelevant in the absence of CAA-backed citizenship.

Back in April 2022, Sarkar threatened to resign from the Assembly and refused to campaign for the 2024 general elections unless the Act was implemented in Bengal. He sent a letter to the BJP state leadership warning that he would not be able to ask for votes from Hindu refugee families without delivering on the party’s core promise.