Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh led a march in support of the Narendra Modi government’s citizenship drives at Falakata in Alipurduar district on Wednesday, the same day Mamata Banerjee took out a procession against the Centre in Darjeeling.

The BJP march that was attended by around 20,000 people started from Falakata Station More and ended at Falakata Chowpathy, which is a distance of 1.5km.

“Residents of Falakata have proved that they are with us. Mamata Banerjee and her party are rattled over the CAA and so launched a campaign. But people are not buying her arguments. This is because during the past 70 years, parties like Trinamul, CPM and the Congress won elections in Bengal with the votes of infiltrators. Now, Trinamul has realised that if the CAA is implemented, the infiltrators will be out of the voters’ list and these parties will lose the polls,” said Ghosh.

Ghosh later told journalists that the chief minister must have seen the gathering in Falakata.

“Mamata Didi is in north Bengal. I believe she has seen the huge gathering in Falakata. We are being stopped from taking up political programmes by police and administration. Even then, we are continuing our activities and people are spontaneously participating in these events,” said Ghosh.

Raju Bista, the BJP MP of Darjeeling, said on Wednesday that he expected Mamata to make some announcements during her visit to Darjeeling.

“I wished she would talk about police atrocities, bring an end to all illegal arrests and detention and help over 5,000 youths come back to the hills as they were forced to live away from home. She didn’t mention anything about it. I hope she will speak to the families of those who lost their lives in 2017 (during the statehood agitation),” said the MP.