As sparks fly high and the BJP and the TMC trade charges on the issue of Bangladeshi immigrants, BJP president Amit Shah is set to hold a rally in Kolkata on August 11 with clear indications that the party would back a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal too, similar to one in Assam that has triggered the ongoing clash and controversy in Parliament.
The polarisation on the NRC between the BJP and the non-BJP-parties is sure to become a poll plank in West Bengal in the run up to the 2019 lok Sabha poll with the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s reported statement that exclusion of over 40 lakh people from the NRC in Assam would lead to “civil war”. The TMC is strongly opposing and alleging that it had violated human rights.
A combative BJP president has dared TMC to arrest him for holding August 11 rally in Kolkata as there were reports of his rally being denied permission by the government of Mamata Banerjee - with whom he has been sparring over the Assam citizens’ list.
BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar condemned Banerjee’s reported statement that exclusion of over 40 lakh people from the NRC in Assam would lead to “civil war” and asserted that Shah would participate in the Kolkata rally on August 11, saying the local police had not done any favour to the BJP by granting permission to it.
With Banerjee holding talks in the national Capital with Opposition leaders, Shah’s proposed rally underscores his intention to build the NRC issue as a major poll plank in her state as lok Sabha elections are barely eight months away.
BJP leaders claimed that the local police had yet not given permission to his event.
However, the Kolkata Police later said it had granted the permission, setting the stage for a showdown between the Trinamool Congress, the dominant political force in the State, and the BJP, which has emerged in recent polls as the main challenger to it but remains a distant second.
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya told reporters that there could be over one crore illegal immigrants in West Bengal and suggest that NRC should be adopted in border States to identify them. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh had earlier said the NRC will be published, on the lines of the one in Assam, if the saffron party was voted to power in the State.
Shah has targeted win in 22 of 42 lok Sabha seats in the state in the next lok Sabha polls. In 2014, the TMC had won 34 seats while the BJP could get only two.