Kolkata: A large section of the regional parties may have skipped the all party meeting chaired by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on 13th January, but the Congress still believes all parties are with them in the fight against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register For Citizenship (NRC) and National People’s Register (NPR).
During his visit to Kolkata on Saturday, former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that all parties opposing the CAA, NRC and NPR are united in their fight despite some political parties choosing to disconnect from the Congress’s fight against the issue.
“We are fighting NPR AND CAA. Sometimes we fight together and separately. We are working with left parties as well. 20 parties attended the meeting some didn't. What matters is that we are fighting against it,” said P Chidambaram. He also held a meeting with party workers to explain the implications of NRC, NPR and CAA.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee chose to skip the meeting called by the Congress senior leadership joining the list of other parties such as Shiv Sena, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
It would seem that regional parties want to hold their ground and are unwilling to let a central party like Congress to take sole credit for the fight, even as the Congress wanted to put together a united front. The party is trying hard to resurrect itself as a force to reckon with to stand up against the Bhartiya Janata Party.
“There are intra-state factors in Bengal and other states but we should not miss the larger picture. We need to come together. In Delhi we are fighting an election and in Bihar we have an alliance with RJD. CM Mamata should decide whether she wants to attend meetings on NPR meeting or not, ” added Chidambaram.
West Bengal declared that it will not participate in the NPR exercise now, as it is a prelude to a country-wide NRC. The meeting was held on Friday in Delhi to discuss the modalities of NPR to be carried out from April 1 to September 30.
