Mamata changed stand on migrants; dividing people to realise PM dream: Vijayvargiya

Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya today claimed that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had changed her stand on the issue of illegal immigrants and that she was trying to use the NRC to divide the people so that she could pursue her "dream of becoming the prime minister".

He also accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo of doing vote-bank politics over the publication of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam on July 30.

"It is shameful that a chief minister is trying to divide the people only to pursue her dream of becoming the prime minister," Vijayvargiya, who is the BJP general secretary in-charge of West Bengal, told reporters here.

Referring to a 2005 incident in Parliament, when Banerjee was a TMC MP, Vijayvargiya claimed that she had changed her stand on the issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

On August 4, 2005, Banerjee had thrown a bunch of papers at the speaker's podium, creating a commotion in the Lok Sabha, after she was not allowed to speak on the issue of illegal migration of Bangladeshis into West Bengal, he said.

"We wonder what happened all of a sudden that the TMC changed its stand within 13 years. The TMC should answer it. It was done for the sake of vote-bank politics," Vijayvargiya said, claiming that the ruling party in West Bengal understood nothing except its vote bank, even at the cost of national security and integrity.

"She (Banerjee) had gone to Delhi to seek support on opposing the NRC, but none of the political parties supported her stand on it. The Union home minister has clearly said it is a draft NRC, but she is trying to misguide the people of the country," the BJP leader said.

The complete draft of the NRC has left out over 40 lakh applicants in Assam, triggering a slugfest between the BJP and the TMC.

Banerjee had sent a delegation of six party MPs, an MLA and a state minister to Assam to assess the post-NRC situation there. However, after the TMC leaders landed at the Silchar airport on August 2, the authorities stopped them and took them under preventive detention, saying their visit might create trouble. The TMC leaders returned to Kolkata yesterday.