Mamata Banerjee Alleges BJP Trying To Implement NRC In Bengal, Calls It ‘A Systematic Assault’

Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee publicly criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Assam government for allegedly trying to push the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bengal, where it had no jurisdiction. 

While citing an NRC notice issued by the Assam Foreigner’s Tribunal to a Cooch Behar villager Uttam Kumar Brajabasi, Banerjee said, “This is nothing short of a systematic assault on democracy. It is proof that the ruling BJP dispensation in Assam is attempting to implement NRC in Bengal, where it holds no power or jurisdiction.”

Bengal Farmer Declared As Suspected Illegal Migrant

The controversy erupted when Uttam Kumar Brajabasi, a Rajbanshi farmer from Dinhata in Cooch Behar district, reportedly received a notice from a Foreigners’ Tribunal in Assam declaring him a suspected illegal migrant. Brajabasi, claimed that he had lived in Cooch Behar for over 50 years and possessed valid identity documents.

Brajabasi had appeared before a Kamrup court and had been instructed to produce the voters’ list that proved his late father had been in the electoral rolls from successive elections from 1966 till his death in 2008.

Banerjee's Discontent Over Bengal Polls Next Year

Over this issue, Banerjee stated that despite having furnished valid identity documents, the farmer was being harassed on suspicion of being a foreigner/illegal migrant. 

Earlier, Banerjee had highlighted the Election Commission’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar which claimed that the central poll panel was trying to bring NRC and disenfranchise voters. 

Due to this, she expressed her apprehension over Bengal which is set to go polls next year as being BJP’s next target. 

She took to X to express her discontent and said, “A premeditated attempt is being made to intimidate, disenfranchise, and target marginalised communities. This unconstitutional overreach in anti-people and exposes BJP’s dangerous agenda of bulldozing democratic safeguards and erasing the identity of Bengal’s people."

Mamata Banerjee also urged all Opposition parties to unite against what she described as the Narendra Modi government’s alarming push for a nationwide NRC.

“This dangerous situation demands immediate and united action from all Opposition forces to resist the BJP’s divisive and authoritarian agenda.” she said.