Mamata dares BJP to conduct NRC survey in Bengal

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday dared the BJP to conduct NRC survey in West Bengal if they manage to return to power. Her comments come within hours after BJP president Amit Shah said that if returned to power, the BJP will ensure that NRC survey is conducted across the country to remove "infiltrators".

"One person (Shah) had come here today and said that NRC will be conducted in Bengal. They should first worry about returning to power and then I will see how they will conduct NRC in Bengal," said Mamata. She was addressing an election rally in Howrah district.

Scoffing at the BJP’s target of winning 23 seats in Bengal, she said that the ruling party at the Centre will draw a blank in the state. She argued that the BJP’s prospects were bleak even in other states. After elections were over in about 300 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP was bracing for defeat in key states like Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Bihar and Rajasthan.

“Now the BJP is trying to get into Bengal. But for a party whose workers’ brains are as barren as deserts it will not be so easy to gain a foothold here,” said Mamata.

She took a dig at BJP over the Ram Temple issue and said that in the last five years the BJP failed to construct the temple, but they rake it up when there are elections.

Referred to the Naxal attack Gadchiroli in Maharashtra that resulted in the death of 15 policemen, Mamata said the BJP should restore peace in Maharashtra the way TMC government did in the once Maoist-affected areas of Bankura, West Medinipur and Purulia districts.