The BJP held a workshop here on Thursday to guide leaders in some districts of north Bengal on how the party could campaign on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The workshop conducted by BJP national general secretary Arvind Menon and other leaders was conduced as different communities adopted opposite stand on the CAA and the National Register of Citizens in north, unlike other parts of south Bengal.

“A section of Gorkhas is silent, while others are critical of the NRC and the CAA. There are also demands to exclude the Darjeeling hills, Terai and the Dooars from the ambit of the CAA. Organisations representing the Rajbanshi community want the NRC but not the CAA. The tribals who reside in tea estates and forest villages are silent. Altogether, the political perspective here is different from other parts of the state,” said a BJP insider.

Menon, sources said, asked the BJP leaders to launch a booth-level campaign on the CAA.

“He mentioned that we must highlight how Trinamul is standing by infiltrators and trying to make them citizens of the country. He also said we should highlight that chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her party are silent when it comes to conferment of citizenship on refugees,” said a BJP leader who was present at the meet.

At the meeting, the BJP MPs of the region were told to take up issues and demands of their areas with Union ministers and officials at the Centre

“As we meet people, we will also mention that while our MPs are serious about development, there is complete insincerity on the part of elected representatives of Trinamul who are only ranting against the CAA and the NRC these days,” the leader said.

Rahul Sinha, a national secretary of the party, was also present at the workshop.

“Mamata has failed to develop the state and is now trying to confuse people. They have seen how public and private properties have been vandalised in Bengal and that no step has been taken against the perpetrators,” said Sinha.