Within weeks of coming to power for the first time in the state, the Suvendu Adhikari-led BJP government in West Bengal has made it amply clear that countering undocumented immigration from Bangladesh is going to be its priority. This issue has been a major concern in Assam ever since the days of the Assam agitation of 1979-85. The BJP, for which the matter has been a core ideological plank for decades, gradually became a major force in Assam and Assamese identity became aligned with the party, largely because of shared concern regarding illegal immigration by Bengali-speaking Muslims from the neighbouring country. With the BJP government in Bengal now following a similar template, a specific kind of Hindutva is seen to be taking root in the eastern and north-eastern states, except Odisha.…