Abdul Mannan extends support to Mamata's anti-CAA call to

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly and senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan on Tuesday extended support to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's call to secular forces, urging them to join hands for countering the BJP over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

"I would request you to convene an all-party meeting excepting the BJP, to sensitise them adequately to undertake the task of enrollment of new voters and retention of the names of those who have once been enrolled, so that at least in the Bengal, this nasty politics of the ruling party at the Centre may be foiled," Mannan said in a letter to Banerjee.

On the issue of objecting to the CAA, all secular forces in Bengal may be called upon to concentrate on this exercise till the middle of January, instead of agitating on the streets, and thereafter, the strategy may be worked out afresh, he said.

"This initiative, once taken, would be very much in conformity with the appeal you have already made to all the secular forces at the national level to oppose this communal agenda of the BJP," Mannan added.

Meanwhile, Banerjee on Tuesday hailed all those who stood against the new citizenship law, asserting that "Bengal stands united to keep India united".

"We stand strong with the bereaved families who lost their lives, standing up for their rights... We salute all who stood against the unconstitutional CAA, NRC and NPR. We express our solidarity with the student community in their peaceful protests," Banerjee wrote on Twitter.