BJP state president Dilip Ghosh today blamed chief minister Mamata Banerjee for the death of seven persons during the past few days fearing National Register of Citizens (NRC) since she “keeps playing on the fears of the people” on the issue for political gain. The NRC will be implemented in Bengal and ‘unwanted Muslims’ will have no place in the state, Ghosh iterated.

“Only the Trinamul will be responsible for the deaths over NRC in the state. We have clearly said all the Hindus who have come from other countries will be given citizenship under Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) and then NRC will be implemented to weed out the infiltrators. Even if all the parties opposed to us get together, they won’t succeed in preventing us from implementing NRC in Bengal,” Ghosh told the media.

“When demonetisation happened, then whenever someone died, whether due to accident or any other natural hazard, the blame was put on demonetisation…Now even if someone dies of dengue then it is linked with NRC. When there is no issue of NRC in Bengal, which is also accepted by Mamata herself, then why there is talk of death due to NRC,” he said. Around two crore Bangladehis have infiltrated into Bengal and they are now living in different parts of the state, he claimed and added NRC will be implemented in Bengal and the people who will be identified as unwanted Muslims as per the register will have no place in the state.

Making a scathing attack on the chief minister Ghosh said : “She has a mindset of nurturing thieves and that’s why she suspects everybody as thief. She should send back the money of the Saradha and Narada scams first and we will manage the issue of merging nationalised banks.” Shah alleged Banerjee was creating panic among common people on banks merger, which, he insisted, was needed for modernisation of banks and cost cutting process. Speaking on the issue, BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said, “Six people who died, did not die due to NRC. They died due to their family reasons.”

“The panic related to NRC was spread by Mamata Banerjee. She took out rallies against it. So she should take responsibility for any deaths due to fear of NRC in Bengal as she and her party have created an atmosphere of fear related to NRC,” Sinha said. Meanwhile, Congress and CPI-M blames chief minister, Mamata Banerjee for the stirring up “infiltrators issue” earlier when Trinamul Congress and BJP were electoral allies. While leader of the Opposition, Abdul Mannan traced Banerjee’s contention of infiltrators getting their names into voters’ list to the present situation, senior CPI-M leader, Md Salim rubbished the chief minister’s assurance that she would not allow NRC to be implemented in the state.

The seed of NRC was sown by Mamata who broke away from Congress and allied her new party Trinamul Congress with BJP, the leader of the Opposition said. It was she who had weakened the secular credentials of the poltics in the state and thereby nurtured a tree of poison fruits whose fruits have to be partaken by the people in the proposed NRC ‘s danger, he felt. No one believes what Banerjee says after she met Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Union home minister, Amit Shah in New Delhi. By her actions,she had not strengthened the people’s unity which could have deployed to put up a combined resistance to the steps of the Fascist forces like NRC and now none gives credence to her words, she said.