Chief Minister of West Bengal and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday raked up the citizenship debate again with a scathing attack on BJP.

At a rally for Workers’ convention for Alipurduar & Jalpaiguri Districts during her three-day tour of North Bengal, Banerjee said, “In both the districts, I have given recognition to all refugee colonies. There might be some delay in getting patta lands. But remember, you won’t have to worry about BJP’s fraud in the name of NPR.”

“What does one do with NPR? Does one eat NPR or wear it? What’s the difference between NPR and NRC,” she said.

North Bengal is likely to be a headache in the mind of Banerjee, who will be looking to come back to power for her third term during the next year’s Assembly Election.

In the last Lok Sabha polls in 2019, BJP made massive inroads and won seven out of the eight parliamentary seats in the region. TMC failed to grab anything as the remaining seat was taken by Congress. Each Lok Sabha constituency in Bengal represents seven Bidhan Sabha chairs.

Rajbangshis, with a population of almost 5 million in the state, form the most authoritative electoral bloc in North Bengal which determines the fate of political parties there. Thus, having them at goodwill becomes a task of paramount importance for all the parties.

As expected, the West Bengal CM gave them prominence during her 45-minute long speech at the ABPC Ground in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday, while she aimed her gun at BJP’s purported communal politics.

“In Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar, they have created new religions. The religion of riots, religion of hatred, religion of defamation.

“They don’t want the Hinduism of Ramkrishna Paramhansa. They don’t want the Hinduism of Debi Chaudhurani. Only the religion of hatred. They instigate fights, murders and riots.

“Somewhere they light up tension between Bengalis and Rajbangshis. Somewhere between Muslims and Christians and somewhere between Bodos and Bengalis. The only thing they know is how to make people fight with each other,” she said.

The TMC chief was also seen hitting BJP at its promise of providing 75 lakh jobs if elected to power. “Now they are promising jobs. Their promise is a sham. It means to cheat.”

“They had guaranteed two crore jobs every year. How many have been provided jobs? Now they are asking to fill forms,” she exclaimed.

Another important facet that had constituted the saffron party’s success in North Bengal in the last elections was the role played by RSS.

RSS, the parent organisation of BJP, has been a sizeable residence in the Adivasi belts of West Bengal, much before its descendant gained electoral footholds in the state.

In their attempt to fill the vaccum created by decadence of the Left Front organisations, the Sangh and its organisations took to welfare works at the grassroot level.

At the same time they subliminally pushed the Hindutva agenda and sowed the seeds of BJP’s success, all while remaining outside the radar of media and mainstream narrative.

Possibly for the first time, Mamata Banerjee, at her rally on Tuesday, recognised the RSS factor in West Bengal. “During the Lok Sabha elections in North Bengal, we did not win anything. What crime did we commit? BJP came from outside and won everything. They are RSS. They are not Ramkrishna Mission or Bharat Sevashram Sangha.”

“If you need books, you’ll get that from the state government. The government also provides test papers. Shoes, uniforms are also provided by the government,” she declared.

“They (RSS) visit door to door and asks if anyone wants to marry off their girls and daughters. Even for that, the state government has introduced the Rupasri scheme.

“Everyone gets a scholarship. What we are doing, no one in the entire world will be able to replicate it. So many opportunities at free of cost. Where will you get such benefits?”

About the latest national anthem controversy irked by BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, Banerjee posed an open challenge to the BJP government. “If you change Rabi Thakur’s Jana Gana Mana, you’ll see what I can do.”

Swamy last week urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to amend ‘Jana Gana Mana’ national anthem written by Rabindranath Tagore.