In Cooper’s Camp in West Bengal’s Nadia district, many elderly refugee families say their political patience is running out. For decades, residents who arrived after Partition have lived in fragile former military barracks with little security of tenure, limited civic services, and dependence on government rations and small monthly assistance. Now, as the state assembly election approaches, some are questioning whether they should continue backing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s camp or place their hopes instead in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
At the center of their frustration is a simple demand: legal ownership of the land on which they have lived for generations. Residents say they are not asking for more cash benefits or food support, but for land deeds that would finally give them stability and dignity. Many in the camp, including very elderly refugees who came from what is now Bangladesh, say they have spent much of their lives waiting for that recognition and now feel abandoned by successive governments.
Cooper’s Camp, once a large rehabilitation site for uprooted families after Partition, has changed over the years but still carries the scars of poverty and neglect. It now has around 17,000 voters, with a significant Matua population, and remains politically important. The area was once a left stronghold, but in recent years the contest has largely shifted to the BJP versus the Trinamool Congress. While some residents acknowledge welfare benefits from both the state and the center, many say their basic problems remain unresolved and that political loyalty is increasingly tied to the unresolved question of land rights and citizenship security.
With the next phase of voting nearing, the mood in Cooper’s Camp suggests a potentially meaningful shift. For families like those of elderly refugee women who still clutch decades-old ration cards as their only proof of belonging, the election is less about ideology than about who they believe might finally deliver legal recognition. Whether that frustration translates into stronger support for the BJP in Nadia will be one of the closely watched stories of the West Bengal election.