Will resign only if people of Bengal ask me: Shah on Cooch Behar killings

Union Home Minister Amit

Shah on Sunday said that he is ready to resign from his post only if the people of West Bengal ask him to do so.

The senior BJP leader, however, asserted that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will have to quit on May 2 as the Trinamool Congress will lose the ongoing assembly elections.

The TMC chief has demanded Shah's resignation over the killing of four people in firing by CISF personnel during the fourth phase of voting in Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar district on Saturday.

"Didi has been asking for my resignation. If the people of West Bengal demand that I put down my papers, I am ready to do so with my head bowed. But Mamata will have to quit the CM's post on May 2," Shah said, while addressing a rally in Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district.

Votes polled in the eight-phase elections to 294 assembly seats in West Bengal will be counted on May 2.

Training his guns on Banerjee, Shah alleged that she is opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to appease illegal immigrants, who he claimed take benefits of welfare schemes but indulge in riots.

"What is Didi's problem if Matuas get citizenship? Her problem is that illegal immigrants will be displeased. Such people don't have the right to rule the state any longer. Illegal immigrants take benefits of welfare schemes like free ration but indulge in riots," he said.

Shah said that the BJP will completely stop illegal immigration from Bangladesh and withdraw a resolution passed in the assembly against CAA after forming the government in the state.

He promised to introduce a 'Chief Minister's Refugee Welfare Fund' to give annual assistance of Rs 10,000 to the beneficiaries.