Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday asserted that the Centre would extend the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise to Bengal but only after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed to accord Indian citizenship to all Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist refugees.

Addressing a meeting on the controversial NRC, which has been restricted to Assam, Shah said Bengal’s ruling Trinamul Congress was misleading people about the citizenship roll.

“People of Bengal are being misled on the NRC... I assure all Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and 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,” he said.

He, however, asserted that all infiltrators will be thrown out of the country.

The BJP president also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for scrapping the provisions of Article 370 that accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir, saying it will facilitate complete integration of the state into India. Referring to Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of Jana Sangh — the BJP’s precursor — Shah said it was due to the sacrifices of the leader that Bengal was today a part of the Indian republic.