The Joint Forum Against NRC — a platform of civil society groups in Bengal — on Saturday announced that it would extend its support for the two INDIA bloc candidates contesting from the two seats in Calcutta.

They also urged people across the country to vote for them in this election to oust the BJP to save the Constitution, and prevent implementation of the divisive Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that came into force in March this year.

“We will extend our support for the INDIA bloc nominees in Calcutta, where the platform has its optimum organisational strength. While we will urge the people of Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha seat to vote for Congress nominee Pradip Bhattacharya, we will appeal to the electors in the Kolkata Dakshin seat to vote for CPM nominee Saira
Shah Halim,” said Prasenjit Bose, convener of the platform, on the sidelines of the release of ‘Nagarik theke Sharanarthi (From Citizen to Refugee)’, a collection of essays criticising the BJP’s citizenship matrix.

Bhattacharya and Halim, the two candidates, who participated in releasing the collection of essays at the Kolkata Press Club, vowed to fight against the CAA as it is divisive and targets a particular community — the Muslims — which goes against India’s secular fabric.

Since the CAA came into force, the forum has launched several protests, claiming that the CAA-2019 notification was a sinister ploy to sow discord and division across the country ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

“Apart from Calcutta, we appeal to the electors across the country to vote for candidates of INDIA bloc constituents to ensure the ouster of the BJP. It is important as we have to save the Constitution and stop the CAA, which amounts to the institutionalisation of the NRC (National Register of Citizens) process,” added Bose, pointing out that the CAA was contradictory.

“In an interview, the Union home minister Amit Shah recently said that even those whose names are on the electoral roll have to apply for citizenship as they don’t have status. Then how do their MPs win elections with votes of those people? He has to answer if the Union minister of state Santanu Thakur is legally elected with their votes,” Bose added.

Other speakers like the leader of the Matua movement, Kapil Krishna Thakur, and convener of the Jai Kisan Andolon, Avik Saha, explained why the CAA was anti-people.

“The CAA won’t help the people of the Matua community in Bengal, and they have finally understood this. In this crucial election, a larger chunk of people from the community will think hard before voting for the BJP,” said Thakur, who spearheaded the anti-citizenship movement in 2008.

“Amid the elections, our platform urges electors across the country to vote against the BJP to stop their sinister ploy against Muslims by introducing the CAA. That is why we want to request voters to vote for any secular, anti-BJP force...,” said Saha.