CHAKRADHARPUR/BAHARAGORA, Dec 2 - BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday set a 2024 deadline for implementing the NRC across the country, asserting �each and every� infiltrator will be identified and expelled before the next general election.
Notwithstanding the admission by some BJP leaders in West Bengal that apprehensions over the NRC had cost the party dearly in the recent bypolls there, the Union Home Minister told poll rallies in neighbouring Jharkhand that the nation- wide exercise will be conducted despite reservations voiced by Opposition parties.
�Today, I want to tell you that before the 2024 polls the NRC will be conducted across the country and each and every infiltrator identified and expelled.
�Rahul baba (Congress leader Rahul Gandhi) says don�t expel them. Where will they go, what will they eat? But I assure you that before the country goes to polls in 2024 all illegal immigrants will be thrown out,� he told election rallies in Chakradharpur and Baharagora.
Shah said national issues like uprooting terrorism, naxalism and construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya were as important in the Jharkhand elections as local matters like development.
Referring to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque dispute, the BJP president alleged that the Congress had made attempts to thwart the hearing of the case in the Supreme Court. � PTI
