Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took out a massive rally in Kolkata against CAA and the NRC. (Photo: PTI)

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee has absolved eight MPs, who were absent on the day Lok Sabha voted and passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Despite there being a whip on party MPs, eight members of the Lok Sabha -- Sisir Adhikary, Dibyendu Adhikary, Nusrat Jahan, Mimi Chakrabarty, Sajda Ahmed, Khalilur Rahaman, Chaudhury Mohan Jatua -- stayed away from voting.

Referring to their absence, Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday, during her "No NRC-No CAB" rally at Jadavpur, said that the Bill was passed in absolute secrecy without informing the MPs beforehand and, hence, many couldn't be present on the day of the Lok Sabha debate.

The absence of the MPs has created quite a flutter with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Left and the Congress ridiculing Mamata Banerjee's double standards.

Even though she's leading the protest against NRC and the CAB from the front, she's indulging her MPs at the backroom, who chose to disobey the party whip and stayed away from voting against the Bill.

That the absence of MPs had caused her and the party a lot of embarrassment was obvious from the way she made Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan hit the roads with her in the anti-NRC-CAB march on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, she has reiterated that her movement against the Centre's double whammy -- CAA and NRC will continue.