Mamata Banerjee on Monday called upon all the parties and the non-BJP Chief Ministers to isolate the BJP and unite against the “mischievous” Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register for Citizens (NRC) which have allegedly been designed to throw the non-BJP people out of India.

Leading a colourful protest rally at Purulia — backed by tribaldance and drum-beats — which has in the recent past emerged as astronghold of the saffron outfit Banerjee said, “I call upon every one… let us unite and discard CAA and NRC and isolate the BJP.”

Alleging that the BJP leaders were making confusing statements on the CAA and the NRC she said that the party had a hidden agenda behind the enactment of the “mischievous citizenship law which is a prelude to invoking NRC in the country.”

She said India had a population of 130 crore out of which the BJP Government wanted to throw out 30 crore by marking them as foreigners.

“They will give citizenship to only those people who follow their line and throw out those who reject it. India has a population of 130 crore. Out of this they will give citizenship to their own people and throw out the remaining ones. Where the remaining people will go? Will they it kela (banana)?” she thundered at the end of a rally at Purulia bordering Jharkhand.

“They think that after passing the law they will be able to pursue their hidden agenda. They think that India is their zamindari (fief)which in fact is not. I must remind them that the laws are made by the Centre but implemented by the States. As of now most State Governments are led not by the BJP but the other parties who are opposing the CAA and NRC.

“Most State Governments have rejected this law and so from the beginning this law is a failure,” Banerjee said, adding she would “not allow the mischievous law to be implemented in Bengal. In fact we have also stopped the work of NPR (National Population Register) which is as discriminatory as the CAA and NRC.”

She added “this is a protest to protect a person’s democracy (democratic rights),” reminding how she had descended on the streets from the very beginning. Banerjee had earlier questioned the alleged faulty implementation of NRC in Assam where she alleged about 14 lakh Bengalis had been robbed of their citizenship.

Meanwhile, even as the Chief Minister staged her sixth protest rally in the State the BJP too embarked on staging counter-rallies backing the CAA. The party staged rallies at Coochbehar in North Bengal where the large procession was led by senior leader Mukul Roy and Baruipur in South 24 Parganas where State BJP president Dilip Ghosh addressed a massive rally but not before being black-flagged by a local TMC crowd.

Ghosh questioning Banerjee’s repeated calls to reject the CAA iterated a Chief Minister being an elected person had no right to defy and reject central law the way she had been doing.

“At times I wonder how a Chief Minister who is an elected person and who is sitting on that post after swearing by the Constitution can reject a central law and vow not to implement it,” Ghosh said after the rally adding “it has become the practice of the TMC to show black flags to the BJP leaders wherever they went which was nothing but a representation of their black faces.

“After getting a drubbing in the parliamentary elections the TMC’s face has blackened. They are anticipating a massive defeat in the Assembly elections. Continuous defeats have made their faces black and their flags black which is why they are showing black flags,” Ghosh said.