BJP's Dilip Ghosh announces rally in Kolkata to 'congratulate'

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Monday said that the party will hold a rally in Kolkata on December 23 to "congratulate" the Centre for amending the Citizenship Act.

Ghosh said the kind of violent protests taking place in West Bengal clearly shows that there is a need for implementing NRC and the citizenship law in the state.

He said BJP working president J P Nadda will be present at the rally and the party will hold a similar mass meeting in north Bengal on December 24.

Ghosh said the way public property is vandalised and damaged in West Bengal is unprecedented.

"Even protests are being held in Assam and Tripura. But public property had not been damaged there," he claimed.

The BJP leader said the violence and arson taking place in the state has been a result of instigation by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who has been "speaking in the same tone as that of Pakistan".

He said since the citizenship law is a central Act, the state government will have to implement it.

"The citizenship law is not a scheme like Ayushman Bharat which the state can have the liberty of not implementing. It is a central Act which has to be implemented in the state," he said.

Banerjee has been vociferously campaigning against both the NRC and the citizenship law, saying that she will not allow their implementation in West Bengal.