Amid BJP call for West Bengal NRC, TMC to send delegation to Assam for assessing ground reality

Names of 40.07 lakh applicants did not find a place in Assam NRC released on Monday.
KOLKATA: A day after lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre over Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC), an eight-member Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation is likely to visit the north-eastern state to assess the ground situation.
“On August 2 and 3, a delegation comprising six MPs of the Trinamool Congress (Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur), MLA Mohua Moitra and West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim will be visiting Assam,” the TMC said in a statement.
Assam released the final draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) on Monday. Out of a total of 3.29 crore people, over 2.89 crore people a place in the list. However, names of 40.07 lakh applicants did not find a place in the document.
Hours after the document was released, TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called a presser where she alleged that Assam NRC is an attempt to isolate Bengalis and Biharis and force them out of the state.
Alleging vote and divisive politics by the BJP, Mamata said, “For how long will you keep lynching, play divide policy? Where will the 40 lakh people whose names have been deleted go? Does the Centre have any rehabilitation programme for them? Ultimately it is Bengal which will suffer. It’s just vote politics by BJP.”
Reacting to Mamata’s statement, West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh called for the publication of the NRC document for West Bengal.
“If we (BJP) are voted to power in Bengal, then we too will implement the NRC in the state. We will send back the illegal immigrants to Bangladesh. Tough days are ahead, we will not tolerate any illegal immigrants in Bengal,” Ghosh told reporters.
Those who will support the illegal immigrants will also be thrown out of the country, he added.