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BJP's Suvendu Adhikari faces Trinamool protest over ‘backdoor NRC’ in Bengal
BJP says he was attacked by stick-wielding protesters, but TMC calls it a ‘well-scripted drama’
Supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal showed black flags to BJP's Suvendu Adhikari in a protest in Cooch Behar district on Tuesday, against the alleged “citizenship test through the backdoor, using voter roll revision”.
The protesters, spread across at least 19 spots along his travel route, also “cleansed” the road with cow dung and water after his convoy passed.
There were reports of some of the protesters using bamboo sticks and banging at his car windows when he was later shown black flags in Cooch Behar.
The TMC, however, said the allegations of an attack were "a well-scripted drama".
Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, was in the north Bengal district to lead a BJP demonstration over a local issue, PTI reported.
According to BJP leaders, a mob holding TMC party flags gathered at the Khagrabari crossing around 12.35 PM when Adhikari’s convoy was passing through the area. They hurled shoes at his vehicle, the BJP said. At least one car in his convoy, which had a police escort, had its windowpanes shattered.
Also read | Suvendu's call for avoiding Muslim-majority areas stokes row
What is ‘backdoor NRC’?
The Trinamool Congress has ben alleging that the BJP is trying to carry out an exercise towards a National Register of Citizens (NRC) by using the ruse of a voter roll check by carrying out a Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
The ongoing SIR in Bihar by the Election Commission has caused controversy, and the NRC has been a contentious issue at least since 2019 when the central government brought in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The CAA-NRC was decried as a means to disenfranchise and question the citizenship of Muslims in particular — a charge the BJP-led government denied.
Also read | Suvendu calls for action by EC to ‘remove illegal voters’
Lately, Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP leaders, in Bengal and elsewhere, have been seeking a Bihar-like SIR across the country to “weed out illegal Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants”. Adhikari put the number if such illegal migrants at 1 crore in West Bengal alone.
