Assam NRC: Rail Roko protests in Bengal; Mamata to meet top opposition leaders in Delhi

In a statement, the Trinamool Congress said that on August 2 and August 3, a delegation comprising six MPs of the TMC will be visiting Assam on Thursday and Friday.

Image: PTI

New Delhi: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is apparently emerging as the face of the opposition front, as she takes charge in the slugfest against BJP government on the Assam NRC issue. The TMC supremo will be meeting the leaders of top opposition parties over the issue. Also a delegation of six TMC MPs will be visiting Assam on Thursday and Friday. TMC MPs to visit Assam: In a statement, the Trinamool Congress said that on August 2 and August 3, a delegation comprising six MPs of the Trinamool Congress will be visiting Assam. The delegation will comprise of Sukhendu Shekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh and Mamata Thakur. TMC leader Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP-led central government of resorting to "vote-bank politics" with regard to the NRC and said "Indian citizens have become refugees" in their own land. Mamata’s Meeting with top opposition leaders Banerjee will meet UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday. She will visit parliament where she is expected to meet several opposition leaders before she meets Gandhi. She is expected to meet Delhi CM Kejriwal later. In the evening Mamata is likely to meet Deve Gowda. On Tuesday, she had meetings with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and MP Sharad Pawar and his daughter MP Supriya Sule, besides Ram Jethmalani, Yashwant Sinha and Satrugan Sinha. The meeting with the opposition leaders that is now driven by the Assam NRC issue, was originally scheduled to extend invitation for a mega anti-BJP rally to be held in Kolkata on January 19 next year. During her four-day visit to the national capital, Banerjee is reaching out to political parties to forge an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Rail Roko Protests in Bengal In West Bengal, the Sara Bharat Matua Mahasangha gathered at various places in North Bengal’s 24 paraganas district to stop trains as a part of ‘Rail Roko Andolan’ called against the NRC.  As per reports at least 5 lakh people of Matua community have been excluded from Assam NRC.

Matua Mahasangha followers stage 'rail roko andolan' against #NRCAssam draft, in North 24 Parganas district. #WestBengal pic.twitter.com/ctFgle04vv

— ANI (@ANI) August 1, 2018