Former Assam chief minister and AGP founder president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Tuesday slammed BJP national president Amit Shah for his comments on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

“We are opposed to what Amit Shah has said. We will not let the bill pass at any cost. We have been opposing this bill since its inception and we will continue doing so,” Mahanta said here on Tuesday during a news conference.

Addressing a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Mancha rally at Lakhimpur in Assam on Sunday, Shah had said the citizenship bill will be tabled again by the Narendra Modi government if it returns to power after the Lok Sabha polls.

The citizenship bill has already been passed in the Lok Sabha but it couldn’t be tabled in the Rajya Sabha because of strong opposition and protests against the bill. The bill that endorses citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from the neighbouring countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan — who have faced religious persecution, has witnessed huge protests and opposition in the Northeast.

“We, who were involved with the Assam Agitation, were the first to oppose the bill. We had a convention at District Library to decide to oppose the bill when no one in Assam started to protest against the bill,” Mahanta said.

Though the AGP was a part of the BJP-led Assam government, the regional party severed ties with the saffron party opposing the bill. Asked if the AGP’s stand against the BJP has softened, the senior leader, who was also one of the signatories to the Assam Accord, said the party was not against the BJP but against the bill.

“We are not against the BJP or any other political party but the issue is the citizenship bill, which we are opposing,” Mahanta added.

The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 after a six-year agitation to flush out illegal migrants from the state.

Mahanta’s successor, former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, had also termed Shah’s announcement at the Lakhimpur rally as resorting once again to “bivedh ka rajniti” (politics of division).

“Shah’s comments will once again ignite the fire that the Congress had doused by going all out to oppose the bill in the Rajya Sabha. The BJP-led government has tried to divide Hindus and Muslims and the Assamese and Bengalis by this bill. It always indulges in politics of division for electoral gains. The BJP will try to keep these issues alive,” Gogoi said.

“Shah has once again made it clear that if it comes to power, it will again try to push the bill. Hence, the only way to stop BJP’s blueprint to destroy Assam is to defeat them in the Lok Sabha elections and stop them from coming to power. It has become apparent that only the Congress is committed enough to protect Assam,” Assam PCC president Ripun Bora had also said on Monday.