Mamata Banerjee will lead a rally in Calcutta on September 12 to protest the final National Register of Citizens in Assam, sources said.

The chief minister reportedly discussed the issue, particularly the exclusion of 19 lakh people from the list published on Saturday, at a closed-door meeting at her Kalighat residence on Monday.

“She has instructed all district units of the Trinamul Congress to organise protest programmes on September 7 and 8,” said a source present at the meeting.

The September 12 “mega-rally” will be held from Chiriya More to Shyambazar.

Poll consultant Prashant Kishor was also present during the discussions that were attended by the party’s district presidents, MPs and senior ministers.

“She has designated party leaders Firhad Hakim (Calcutta mayor and minister in the state cabinet) and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (Rajya Sabha MP) to stay in touch with ground sources in Assam and other northeastern states, and has pledged her support for them,” said a senior leader.

“She has also directed Sudip Bandhopadhyay to stay in touch with other national parties on the NRC issue,” the leader added.

Sources in Trinamul said Mamata’s nuanced response to the contentious issue marked a departure from her belligerent opposition to the NRC in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

“Prashant Kishor is advising party leaders how to reform their anti-BJP stance without compromising on their ideals,” a leader said.

In the lead-up to the 2019 general elections, Mamata had repeatedly decried the NRC.

BJP chief Amit Shah had championed NRC at a pre-poll rally in Calcutta in April, saying it would “weed out every single infiltrator” from the country.

In the wake of the BJP’s Bengal gains in the general elections — the party won 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats — party leaders have repeatedly expressed the desire to implement NRC in the state.