Immediately after the publishing of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari on Saturday said that it was necessary to have a similar citizens’ register in the national capital as well.

He said NRC is needed in Delhi as the situation is getting dangerous with the settling of illegal migrants. “We will implement NRC here as well,” Tiwari was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

His comments gain significance as Delhi is heading for the Assembly elections next year.

Reacting on the remarks, the All India Mahila Congress mocked the Delhi BJP chief tweeting, “So Manoj Tiwari ji, Born in Kaimur, Bihar, Studied in Varanasi, UP, Worked in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Contested in Gorakhpur, UP, Contested again in Delhi is talking about throwing immigrants away from Delhi. Irony wants a change of name! (sic)”

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier said that the centre will identify and deport all the illegal immigrants and infiltrators from the country.

Shah minced no words in reaffirming that the NRC will not be restricted to Assam, but will be implemented across the length and breadth of the country.

“The NRC is part of the Assam Accord and was also in (BJP’s) election manifesto based on which the government has come to power. The government will identify illegal immigrants living on every inch of the country’s soil and will deport them as per the international law,” Shah said in Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs is planning to implement the National Citizenship Register throughout the country. The ministry had issued a notification on July 31, 2019, where it mentioned that the Central government has decided to prepare and update the population register in the rest of India other than the state of Assam.

However, ahead of the release of the final Assam citizens’ list, state cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that he has “lost hope” on the present form of the NRC right after the draft where several genuine Indians were left out.

He further said that the final NRC list, which aims to identify legal residents and weed out illegal immigrants, cannot be termed as a “red-letter” for the Assamese society.

Indicating he has very little faith that the list would help get rid of foreigners, the minister said that he just wanted the NRC list publication process to pass off peacefully.

The final citizens’ list in Assam was published including names of 3.1 crore people and leaving out 19 lakh names.