BJP not happy with NRC list as 'more should have been excluded': Himanta Biswa Sarma

New Delhi: The National Register of Citizens (NRC) issued its final list on Saturday but the ruling BJP, which has been passionately advocating for it for decades, is not happy.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, senior BJP leader and Assam Finance minister, said the list that has excluded over 19 lakh people, is "erroneous" as "more illegal migrants should have been excluded" and that the party's fight to "exclude every single foreigner" from the state will continue.

Sarma added that the BJP and the state government will now approach the Supreme Court again for "re-verification" of the citizenship in the border districts. While maintaining that the party's official view on the final list will be known later, Sarma said the prima facie report that he received from the indigenous people is that "they are not at all happy with the outcome of the process".

"The NRC has not been able to fulfill the expectation of the people of Assam because the entire process has excluded 19 lakh people, among which 3.80 lakh did not wish to appeal and those who have already died. So, the actual exclusion currently is 15 lakh, out of which around 5-6 lakh people are those who have migrated from Bangladesh due to religious persecution before 1971," Sarma maintained.

The BJP leader said the government had earlier declared 40 lakh people as foreigners in Assam — which even came out as a reply in Parliament. "But people in Assam are not happy because the number of exclusion is going to be much below than expected. The excluded number should have been more," he said.

Shortly after the NRC was published, BJP MP from North-east Delhi Manoj Tiwari said: "NRC is needed in Delhi as the situation is becoming dangerous. Illegal immigrants who have settled here are the most dangerous, we will implement NRC here as well."