BJP will be wiped out in 2019; won't allow NRC in Bengal: Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: Launching a scathing attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Centre, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise will not be allowed in the state. She added that the BJP will be wiped out in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. 

"We will not allow NRC exercise in Bengal. They (BJP leaders) are challenging us. If we are challenged, we will give them a fitting reply," she said.

Referring to the recent panchayat polls in the state, she alleged that the party is resorting to politics of killing in the state.

"The BJP won just a few seats in erstwhile Maoist hotbed of Jangalmahal by resorting to politics of killing. The former CPI(M) goons are now working for them," she said at a rally here on the occasion of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (students' wing) foundation day.

The chief minister also said that she would not "tolerate" if a citizen is wrongfully tagged a foreigner here.

"We are Bengal tigers, we will not tolerate if an Indian citizen is dubbed a foreigner," she asserted.

Banerjee has been a vocal critic on Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft, calling it an attempt to isolate Bengalis, Biharis and Hindus out of the state.

"West Bengal will suffer because of this. There will be huge ramifications of this (Assam NRC). Where will these 40 lakh displaced persons stay? Bangladesh won't take them back," Banerjee had said after the release of the historic Assam NRC document, that had names of 40.07 lakh applicants missing.

With agency inputs