West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, has distanced herself from the campaign by a united opposition against the Citizenship Amendment Act and implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo has refused to be a part of the meeting that will be chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on January 13 (Monday).

Her move comes even as she accused the Left and the Congress of playing “dirty politics” and said she will fight it out alone.

Banerjee has been one of the fiercest critics of CAA and NRC and has hit the streets with at least 12 rallies since the amended Citizenship Act was passed by the Rajya Sabha in December. She has been vehemently opposing the policies and time and again reiterated that there will be no implementation of the Act here. She even stopped NPR training work in a bid to allay fears over the implementation of NRC.

“The politics of opposition (parties) in the state, (is) in contradiction with their all-India stand,” Banerjee said while speaking at a special session of the West Bengal Legislative assembly.

“I was the first to launch an andolan (movement) against CAA NRC. What the Left and the Congress are doing in the name of the CAA-NRC is not a movement but vandalism,” the Chief Minister added.

Critical of Oppositon's role

Banerjee’s fresh tirade and her boycott of the all Opposition party meeting comes a day after there were sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal during a 24-hour bandh call by several Left party and Congress-backed trade unions.

Reiterating her stand against bandhs, the Chief Minister cracked the whip on protestors and had gone the extra mile through additional police deployment to ensure normalcy. Invariably, there were clashes between the police and bandh supporters all across the State.

She had in fact lashed out at the CPI(M) calling it a “signboard party” for their alleged involvement in vandalism. One particular incident that saw the state government see red was clashes with Left workers in Malda's Sujapur. A purported video from Sujapur is being circulating on social media that shows uniformed men smashing car windscreens. The CPI(M) had accused Trinamool Congress workers of fomenting trouble.

Referring to the incident, the Chief Minister said, “But what happened yesterday in the state it is no more possible for me to attend the meeting anymore.”

Banerjee also shot down a proposal by CPI(M) to bring a resolution against the CAA and NRC in the Assembly.

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