Delhi polls: BJP to counter Kejriwal with Hasina govt's remark on NRC

To corner Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and his remarks against Biharis, especially BJP's Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari, the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to evoke sentiments expressed by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government on the NRC.

By Pragya Kaushika To corner Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and his remarks against Biharis, especially BJP's Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari, the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to evoke sentiments expressed by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government on the NRC.

Speaking to ANI, sources said the BJP, during election campaigns, will widely publicise the positive comments emanating from the Bangladesh government and pit these against the comments that were made by AAP chief Kejriwal recently. On September 27, Tiwari had sent a legal notice to Kejriwal over his statement that if the NRC was carried out in the national capital, then the former would be the first one to leave Delhi.

The legal notice had stated that Kejriwal's statement against Bihar born Tiwari is "false, unverified, misleading deliberately" and was made with the sole intention to spread misinformation with the objective of "creating a law and order situation in Delhi". On Saturday, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque had said that his country was reassured by the explanations given by India that the implementation of the NRC in Assam is an internal matter but had added that Dhaka will keep a close eye on developments.

Haque's response came after Hasina had a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources stated that the BJP would like to take the issue to the voters and tell them specifically that the Delhi Chief Minister was deliberately trying to foment trouble by making such controversial comments on the NRC.

The plan would be to send across a message that the AAP was trying to create such an impression so as to reach out to the voters of minority community while at the same time ignoring the majority view on the issue, they added. "The fact that Kejriwal said Tiwariji will need to leave Delhi if he implements the NRC was not just a comment on him but on Biharis and Purvanchalis. His ignorance about the NRC is in stark contrast with what Bangladesh has said on the NRC," stated a senior leader.

NRC has evolved as a major issue for the BJP and its chief Amit Shah has repeatedly stated that the party would implement it across the nation. The same sentiment has already been echoed in the states that have a BJP government. The 70-member Delhi Assembly is expected to face polls early next year and the BJP is trying hard to dislodge the AAP government, which was elected to power in 2015 by a brute majority of 67 seats in the House.

The BJP feels that this may be an opportune time for them to wrest power from the AAP as it had completely overshadowed its opponents in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year in which all seven seats in the national capital were secured by the party. (ANI)

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(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)