PM Modi terms Mamata's opposition to SIR ploy to protect infiltrators: 'Law will punish those who entered India illegally'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday slammed the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) for encouraging infiltration in West Bengal and said that "this is a big threat to the state and country".

Addressing a public rally at West Bengal's Durgapur, PM Modi said, "For its own benefit, the TMC government has put the identity of West Bengal at stake. Infiltration is being encouraged in the state. Fake documents are being made for the infiltrators. An entire ecosystem has been developed. This is a big threat to West Bengal and the country... In the politics of appeasement, TMC is crossing all limits...Action will be taken against those who are not citizens of the nation..."

Mamata Banerjee had earlier accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of "acting like a stooge of the BJP" and wondered if the implementation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll was a "backdoor attempt to implement the National Register of Citizens".

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Assembly polls in Bengal are due next year and the poll body has decided to conduct a Special Intensive Revision of voter lists in the state. Such a revision is currently being done in Bihar. Banerjee has alleged that this is part of a conspiracy to delete the names of valid voters, especially the migrants and the underprivileged.