Even as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned the Bharatiya Janata Party against using force in the BJP-ruled states to suppress protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC, state party chief Dilip Ghosh said here on Thursday said that the National Register of Citizens exercise was needed in India, and it should be first carried out in West Bengal.

He said that the NRC exercise should first be undertaken in Bengal as infiltrators have become the vote bank of the Mamata Banerjee-led ruling Trinamool Congress.

“NRC is needed in India. The first NRC exercise should be undertaken in Bengal. When and how it will take place, or whether the Supreme Court or the government will do it… for instance, the BJP has no connection with the NRC in Assam.

“When Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister, he had signed the Assam accord, which talked about carrying out an NRC exercise. He didn’t do it. Disappointed people went to court, and as per the judiciary’s order, the NRC was done,” the MP said.

Regarding a possible NRC in the state, Ghosh said: “First let the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) be implemented in the state, then we will see what to do with NRC. We are not saying we will implement it but we feel it should be to weed out infiltrators who have become the vote bank of the Trinamool.”

Daring Banerjee to stop implementation of the CAA, Ghosh said “It is a central act which will be implemented across the country. Let Mamata Banerjee stop it if she can from coming into force in the state”.

In her sixth rally against the CAA in 10 days, Mamata Banerjee on Thursday warned the BJP against “playing with fire”, asserting that peaceful protests will continue as long as the new citizenship law is not rolled back.

Marching with thousands of party workers and supporters, Mamata Banerjee led a protest rally from Kolkata’s Rajabazar to Mullick Bazar.

The chief minister asked students to continue with their protests, adding that she will always be by their side.

Over the past eight days, the Trinamool has been bringing out rallies and holding processions all over the state. Banerjee has been spearheading the movement and has led five marches in Kolkata and its twin city Howrah.

Despite the Citizenship Amendment Bill becoming an Act, the TMC is still using ‘CAB’ in most of its posters and slogans.

The CAA seeks to provide Indian nationality to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists fleeing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, before December 31, 2014.

As per the Act, they will not be treated as illegal immigrants and will be granted Indian citizenship.

In Bengal, trains, buses and railways stations had been torched and vandalised, and roads and train tracks blockaded by the protesters soon after the legislation was passed in the Parliament.