New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday called on Home Minister Amit Shah — their first meeting after the implementation of NRC in Assam — and raised the issue of several genuine voters being left out due to the exercise.
The Trinamool Congress chief met Shah at his office at the North Block, a day after she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday evening.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Banerjee said: “I handed over a letter to him, told him that of the 19 lakh people left out of NRC, many are Hindi speaking, Bengali speaking and local Assamese. Many genuine voters have been left out. This should be looked into.” She added: “Shah did not say anything about NRC in West Bengal. I have already clarified my stand that NRC is not needed in the state.”
Banerjee has been a vocal critic of the exercise and took out massive a rally against the BJP’s attempt to bring NRC across the country, warning the party not to play with fire.
“I dare the BJP to touch a single person in Bengal in the name of NRC. I will not let the NRC happen in Bengal till I am alive. If I die, then my young leaders will fight against this conspiracy to divide people in the name of religion,” the TMC chief had said.
In a veiled attack at the BJP, Banerjee said vested interests are trying to break the backbone of Bengal’s unity by trying to divide people along communal lines. “Our battle against NRC is for our existence. It’s a battle of our existence. No one is going to fight for you. It is our battle and we have to fight it,” Banerjee said.
The party had on September 7 and 8 taken out rallies in other parts of the state to oppose the exercise to update citizenship register.
Over 19 lakh applicants failed to make it to the final NRC list on August 31. A total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC. Of them, 3,11,21,004 have been included in the document and 19,06,657 excluded, a statement from the NRC State Coordinator's office had said.
Calling the updated list a 'fiasco', Banerjee had earlier said, "My heart goes out to all those, especially the large number of Bengali speaking brothers and sisters, who are made to suffer because of this botched-up process."