The Bengal BJP desperately wants the Union home ministry to set up at least one BSF camp in violence-hit Samserganj, fearful that further delay will alienate local Hindu voters and cost the party a golden opportunity ahead of next year’s state elections.

Demand has been growing from local Hindus for permanent BSF deployment in the area following the communal violence of April 11, which killed three people, destroyed scores of homes and shops and caused hundreds to flee.

Their frustration is growing by the day with neither the BJP leadership nor the visiting members of constitutional bodies, such as the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women, providing a timetable for the establishment of permanent BSF camps.

“Eight days have passed, and many people from our area are fleeing,” said Bapi Ghosh, a resident of Betbona village in Samserganj where at least 100 houses were ransacked, looted or torched.

“We don’t trust the state police; we want a permanent BSF camp in our area to protect us from further attacks. We don’t want any delay.”

Ghosh added: “The governor visited our area today and we placed our demand before him. But neither he nor the other senior officials from various bodies have given any assurances. Everyone just says they’ve noted our concerns and will take them to Delhi.”

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee mounted an offensive on the RSS on Saturday night, tearing into the grand marshal of the saffron ecosystem for allegedly spreading lies regarding violence and vandalism as a purported fallout of the protests against the waqf legislation of the BJP-led Centre.

A BJP leader said the growing public disappointment at the delay in announcing a BSF camp has mounted pressure on the party.

“People are openly saying they have no trust in Mamata Banerjee and the police. If we can’t give them a deadline for a BSF camp at such a critical time, they might lose faith in us,” he said.

The BJP leader added: “If their demand is fulfilled, it will send a strong message to Hindus across Bengal that the Narendra Modi government stands with them.”

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya said: “We support the demand for a BSF camp. The governor visited the area today, and we hope the outcome will be positive.”

Reflecting the state BJP’s unease, leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari has demanded “strong action” from the visiting constitutional bodies, urging them not to limit their efforts to filing reports and addressing the media.

“If there is no NIA (National Investigation Agency) probe and central forces are not deployed for at least the next few months — if the constitutional bodies merely visit, take pictures, upload them on social media and say things like ‘a report will be submitted’ or ‘action will be taken’ — it will not be enough,” the Nandigram MLA said in Bhowanipore on Saturday evening after a march against the “atrocities on Hindus”.

“Enough is enough. We want strong action. Otherwise, the Hindus will be forced to sell their land at throwaway prices to radical Muslims and TMC-backed goons and flee the area.”

A senior BJP leader said Adhikari’s statement was significant since similar demands had not been fulfilled after past bouts of communal violence.

On Saturday, when National Commission for Women chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar visited the violence-hit areas of Samserganj, sobbing women pleaded with her for the immediate establishment of a BSF camp. Rahatkar assured them that their demands had been noted.

Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury, BJP leader and MLA from English Bazar in Malda, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and party president J.P. Nadda asking that sensitive areas be identified and BSF camps established.

“Local people have long been demanding BSF camps, and I had flagged this issue earlier,” Mitra Chaudhury, who had lost from Malda Dakshin in the 2024 general election, said.

“After this horrific violence, I have sent multiple reports to our party’s national leadership, urging the identification of sensitive areas and the installation of BSF camps in the troubled zones.”

Mitra Chaudhury said BSF posts did once exist in Dhulian and Parlalpur in Malda but were lost to river erosion and had not been replaced.

“I have been demanding from the time of the UPA government’s tenure that Malda be declared a BSF zone under an officer of inspector-general rank,” she said.

N.K. Pandey, the deputy inspector-general of South Bengal Frontier and BSF spokesperson, said: “The decision to set up picketing on a permanent basis lies jointly with the state and central governments. Primarily, it is the state government’s prerogative, in consultation with the central government. The BSF has no role in taking such decisions....”

On the presence of BSF camps, he clarified: “There was no permanent BSF camp in any area, nor can there be one within town limits...”

A senior BJP leader in Calcutta, however, said: “The BSF has full authority to establish a camp or conduct regular patrols in Dhulian or Samserganj, as these areas lie within 50km of the Bangladesh border, which is within its operational jurisdiction. However, setting up a permanent camp would require the state government to allocate the required stretch of land.”

Additional reporting by Subhasish Chaudhuri