Modi fooling people of Assam: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today alleged the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Bill are "two lollipops" being doled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fool the people of Assam.

The draft final NRC has left out the names of over 40 lakh people and it was only the Trinamool Congress that stood beside these people irrespective of their religion, Mamata told an election rally in Dhubri in Assam, our New Delhi correspondent reports.

No political party supported the people whose names were left out from the list, but "we were always with them", she added.

Mamata said "it was not only Muslims but the names of 22 lakh Hindus and Gorkhas, Biharis, Tamils and people from Kerala and Rajasthan have been left out of the NRC. We are fighting to get all of their names included."

"Two days after the NRC list was announced, I sent a team of my party to Assam. We were not allowed to go out of the airport and harassed," she recalled.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is another "lollipop" doled out by the BJP to "fool" the people of Assam and deprive them of their rights, the Trinamool Congress supremo said.

"All those who have come to India beore March 25, 1971 are citizens of the country and have voting rights. What is the BJP saying now?..you will be deprived of basic rights, including education, health, visiting your places of worship and even voting rights," she said.

Prime Minister Modi is "always fooling the people", Mamata charged.

"Five years ago, he called himself a 'chaiwala' but now he has forgotten how to make tea and become a 'chowkidar' to siphon the poor peoples' money and give it to the rich," she alleged.

The Trinamool Congress is contesting nine of the 14 Lok Sabha parliamentary seats in Assam which goes to polls in three phases from April 11 to May 19.