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BJP worried over possible deletion of Hindu Bengali names from NRC

By Spl Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Sept 29 - Rattled by reports of large number of Hindu Bengalis being left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the BJP on Saturday held a discussion with the party-led government in Assam over its next course of action.

The meeting chaired by BJP national president Amit Shah and attended by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, State BJP president Ranjeet Dass, State minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and organisation secretary Phani Sarmah, among others, discussed a host of issues, including the NRC matter.

According to sources, the BJP is worried over the possibility of a large number of Hindu Bengalis being dropped from the NRC. The Supreme Court�s directive to retain only 10 of the 15 documents and State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela�s report to the apex court have left the BJP nervous.

While the BJP national president has been very vocal about the illegal Muslim migrants describing them as �termites� and vowing to deport every one of them, he has been silent about the Hindu Bengali migrants.

The Assam government while pleading for retention of the 15 documents has added another two to the list of documents to be used for verification purpose. The Central and State governments have also filed separate affidavits in this regard, besides making a strong plea for handing over of Hajela�s report.

Meanwhile, with the 2019 general election approaching, the BJP central leadership also reviewed the performance of the State government and the BJP State unit. The meeting also discussed the political situation in Assam, State minister Himanta Biswa Sarma later told newsmen.

�Since the meeting discussed the political situation, the issue of NRC also came up. But it does not mean that only the NRC matter was discussed,� he said.

The BJP national president directed that the booth committees should be strengthened in the State ahead of the polls. In this connection, a special exercise will be undertaken from October 1-10 in the State to further activate the booth committees.

Later talking to newsmen, Ranjeet Dass said it was a routine meeting that is held every quarter. �We have discussed organisational matters. We updated the central leadership about the work undertaken to organise the booth committees,� he said.

�We have called a State executive meeting in Majuli on October 10-11 which will be attended by Shah and party general secretary Ram Madhav,� he added.

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