The BJP will ‘press through’ Citizenship Amendment Bill in the coming Budget Session which was blocked in the Rajya Sabha in the last winter session by the Congress and other Opposition parties, hoping that the Bill may give it ‘good dividends’ in West Bengal in 2019 Lok Sabha poll.
The BJP which is facing an uphill task in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, expects Eastern India could offset its possible reverses in the Hindi heartland.
“ Citizenship bill is our commitment to the people and we will have it passed..”, said a senior BJP leader and referred to party’s major campaign of upto 130 public rallies in next two months including two of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February two and February eight in West Bengal . A third public rally of the Prime Minister is also planned in the State.
The Citizenship Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha in the Parliament’s winter session of Parliament, but was stalled in the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress had staged a walk out in the Lok Sabha protesting non-inclusion of Muslims in the category of persecuted minorities. The Bill includes the Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis who would be given Indian citizenship if they provide evidence of prosecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and completed six years of residence in India.
Voting on it is expected in the Rajya Sabha during the budget session beginning January 31. The Bill has apparently alienated a section of people from in Assam , Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh , Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur who fear that passage of the Bill could lead to large scale migration from Bangladesh and affect the rights, demography and identity of indigenous populations.
Defending the controversial citizenship bill, Assam’s Finance Minister and Senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said its implementation is a must for the state to ensure it does not face a Kashmir-like situation in the future.
The Bill has unleashed protests across much of the Northeast and prompted the Asom Gana Parishad to walk of the BJP-led government in Assam last month.
The Central BJP leadership, however, thinks that the bill may provide the right catalyst to the party winning 23 Lok Sabha seats in the state as its state unit President Dilip Ghosh seek to scale up the numbers to 25 and still other party leaders put the numbers at 33 Lok Sabha seats. The opposition describes BJP’s claim as its “ wild day dreaming”. In 2014 BJP could win only two of 42 LS Lok seats.
The BJP believes that citizenship bill would given it enough political heft and polarize voters in its favour in West Bengal where it has promised Indian citizenship to all non-Muslim Minorities who have crossed over from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan on account of religious prosecution.
Besides Prime Minister, BJP President Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, would hold public meetings in West Bengal. Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani and Dharmendra Pradhan and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan are also among those who will address party’s rallies.