In a major embarrassment to the Trinamool Congress, the chief of its Assam unit, Dwipen Pathak, and two other party leaders resigned from party membership on Thursday.

They said they are resigning in protest against TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's opposition to the second draft of the National Register of Citizens.

They alleged that Mamata is oblivious to ground realities in Assam and that her comments against NRC are divisive in nature.

Pathak's resignation came within hours of a TMC delegation arriving at the Silchar airport in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley. The delegation was not allowed to step out of the airport, following which the leaders clashed with policemen. Both sides have accused the other of attacking them.

Diganta Saikia, a TMC leader from Golaghat and who was among the three to resign, even threatened to file a case against Banerjee for taking an anti-Assamese stand.

"Without any knowledge, she (Mamata Banerjee) has slammed the NRC. The ground reality is very different," said Diganta Saikia said.

After NRC published the complete draft on July 30 excluding more than 40 lakh people, Mamata Banerjee said, the NRC might lead to "civil war" and "bloodbath".

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as well as other parties in Assam said the TMC had no existence in the Barak Valley.

Pathak, a former MLA from Hajo, told reporters that he had apprised the party leaders of the "ground realities" in Assam after the publication of the final draft of the NRC and urged Banerjee not to send the delegation to the north-eastern state now.

"The party did not pay heed to my suggestion and refused to understand the ground situation here. In this backdrop, it is not possible for me to remain in a party that does not value the Assamese sentiment," Pathak, who was a TMC MLA from 2011 to 2016, said.

TMC leader Pradip Pachani of Sibsagar and Saikia resigned, saying they could not remain members of a party that wanted to compromise the identity of the indigenous Assamese people.

Effigies of Banerjee were burnt in Charaideo and Sonitpur districts in the Brahmaputra Valley by students' organisations, who warned the TMC supremo and her party not to "meddle in Assam".

(With inputs from PTI)

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