Citizenship Bill will have a positive impact in Bengal: Ghosh

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh Wednesday claimed that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will have a "positive" impact in the state.

He said it has exposed the "double standards" of CPI(M) and TMC who have played politics with the emotions of the refugees in West Bengal.

"We welcome this Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, we are confident that it will have a positive impact in Bengal where we have huge number of refugees who will be granted citizenship. Most of the political parties including CPI(M) and TMC have played with the emotions of Hindu refugees for last several decades but did nothing for them. It is BJP which ensured they get citizenship," Ghosh told PTI.

The TMC and CPI(M) should come out clean whether they want citizenship status for refugees or not or they are only interested in pursuing minority vote bank politics, he said.

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The bill provides for according Indian citizenship to the Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 years currently even if they do not possess any document.

Senior TMC MP Saugata Roy has dubbed the bill as "divisive" and "insidious" that goes against the basic tenets of the Constitution.