In a video message on Wednesday, senior Trinamool leader and state minister Shashi Panja said, “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has categorically mentioned that CAA will not be implemented in Bengal. Those who are already citizens of Bengal need not be given citizenship twice. They are recipients and beneficiaries of various developmental schemes in Bengal. BJP is merely using CAA as a tool before elections.”

“They have passed the law but are yet to frame the rules. This is nothing but an attempt to fool the masses before the Lok Sabha elections,” she said.

Targeting Union Minister of State and BJP MP Shantanu Thakur who had earlier claimed that CAA will be implemented before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Panja said, “This is doublespeak. He speaks one thing in Delhi and his version changes in Bengal.”

“They have passed the law but are yet to frame the rules. This is nothing but an attempt to fool the masses before the Lok Sabha elections,” she said.

Thakur is a popular Matua leader from Bengal.  Getting the country’s citizenship is their long-standing demand which the BJP had promised to fulfil if voted to power in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.

Responding to Panja’s comments, West Bengal BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya  said, “The TMC is neither interested in the development of the country nor in national security. They are only interested in vote bank politics. The TMC is opposing CAA to appease its vote bank politics.”

— With PTI inputs