Trinamool slams Amit Shah, accuses BJP of using NRC for political gains

Kolkata : The Trinamool Congress on Saturday accused the BJP of trying to gain political mileage from the recently published National Register of Citizens (NRC) Ain Assam and demanded that not a single Indian be left out from the list.

Responding to BJP President Amit Shah's attack on their party on the NRC issue, Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee claimed that nearly 12.5 lakh Bengalis have been left out of the document's first complete draft.

"BJP is the ruling party in Assam. So they are trying to use the NRC for their political benefit. If you look at the draft NRC closely you will find that close to 12.5 lakh Bengalis have been left out from the list apart from numerous Sikhs, Hindi-speaking people and minorities," Chatterjee told the reporters here.

"It is quite obvious that BJP is trying to use the Supreme Court directive on NRC as a shield to gain political benefit... Our stand is very clear. Not a single Indian citizen should be left out of the NRC list," he claimed.

Shah on Saturday flayed the state's Mamata Banerjee government for opposing the draft NRC in Assam and urged it to clarify its stand on the issues of infiltration and nation's security.

Chatterjee also denied Shah's allegation that the Trinamol was indulging in vote bank politics in Bengal and claimed the party and its supremo Mamata Banerjee's vote bank encompassed people across the state.

"Our vote bank is all over Bengal. They do not have any kind of bank as their banks were looted by Vijay Maliya, Nirav Modi, Choksi and others. We rely on the bank of people. As long as people are with Mamata Banerjee, the vote bank of people will ensure her victory," he claimed.