BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday reiterated that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be launched in Bengal if his party returned to power, dwelling on the theme at rallies in Kalimpong and Raiganj.

“We will launch the NRC in Bengal so that infiltrators are identified and driven out of the state. On the other hand, all refugees who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains, would be given citizenship. That is why we want to bring in the Citizenship (Amendment) bill. Mamata Banerjee is opposing it,” Shah said in Raiganj.

To counter Mamata’s anti-NRC campaign, Shah sought to reassure the Gorkhas that “they need not to worry” if the exercise was started in Bengal. “If the Narendra Modi government comes back to power, we will ensure the Gorkhas in India are granted tribal status. We have mentioned it in our manifesto,” Shah said in Kalimpong.

In recent years, Shah is the first national BJP leader to campaign in the hills. The BJP had won the Darjeeling seat in 2009 and 2014.

Referring to tea, Shah claimed garden workers in BJP-ruled Assam were given several types of aid while their counterparts in Bengal “lived in deplorable conditions”.