'It won't work in Bengal,' says Mamata after Amit Shah's NRC pitch

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee locked horns on Tuesday after the former asserted the Centre's decision to implement the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state. Shah, while addressing a rally in Kolkata, said all infiltrators would be thrown out of the country.

Shortly after Shah's speech, the chief minister retorted, accusing the BJP president of playing divisive politics. She even warned Shah that such attempts would not work in her state.

Earlier Shah alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal had misled people in the state about the NRC. 

"People of Bengal are being misled about the NRC ... I assure all Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain refugees that they won't have to leave the country ... They will get Indian citizenship and enjoy all the rights of an Indian national when the Citizenship Amendment Bill is passed in Parliament," he said.

Shah also insisted that NRC is a must to ensure the country's safety and security.

The chief minister, while inaugurating a community puja in south Kolkata in the evening, urged the BJP chief not to create rift among people. “Bengal is known for its hospitality and people of different faiths in the state practice their respective religions,” she said.

“Everyone is welcome to our state and enjoy the hospitality of our people. But please don't profess any divisive politics ... It will not work in Bengal," she said.

Banerjee, a strident critic of both the BJP and the NRC, had earlier claimed 11 people had committed suicide so far out of fear of being rendered stateless in the event of the citizenship register being prepared in the state, and declared she would never allow the exercise to be undertaken in West Bengal.

More than 19 lakh people in Assam have been excluded from the recently published final NRC, a proof of Indian citizenship.