#WATCH: Dwipen Pathak after resigning from Assam TMC Chief's post says, "What Mamata Banerjee said about NRC, that… https://t.co/zTvJIUhMHM — ANI (@ANI) 1533212180000

GUWAHATI: The Assam unit of Trinamool Congress, led by its president Dwipen Pathak , quit the party en masse on Thursday in protest against party supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee 's aggressive stand on the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) released by the state government earlier this week.Pathak, who represented the Hajo constituency in the Assam assembly as TMC legislator from 2011 to 2016, said, "Banerjee has been trying to project that NRC is an exercise to drive out Bengalis from Assam. The NRC is a fruit of long years of the struggle of the people of Assam against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh ... I will not accept anyone trying to malign the image of the state.”Lashing out at Mamata, Pathak said, “Why is she trying to make Assam a scapegoat so that she can save TMC’s political existence in West Bengal? I don’t have the moral right to remain a member of such a party under such a leader.”He said that the TMC headquarters had informed him on Wednesday about the visit of the eight-member TMC delegation to Silchar on Thursday. “They did not consult me or else I would have advised them to not take such a trip at this point of time.”Pathak added, “Where was she (Mamata) when I had invited her to visit Assam during the floods. The TMC has so many members in Parliament and they can easily raise the problem of devastating floods in Assam. No one came then, so why now?”