A day after defence minister Rajnath Singh said countrywide National Register of Citizenship (NRC) is inevitable, BJP’s biggest ally JD(U) on Sunday said there is no need for this exercise in Bihar .

JD(U) national secretary-general and spokesperson K C Tyagi told TOI that there is no question of implementation of NRC in Bihar. He said the Supreme Court’s direction for the implementation of the NRC was limited to Assam, and the apex court has so far not issued any directive for the implementation of the NRC in Bihar.

Addressing a series of election rallies in neighboring Jharkhand on Saturday, Singh stressed the inevitability of nationwide implementation of the NRC and said that nothing can deter the union government from implementing the NRC.

“Moreover, the BJP-led government in Assam has now decided to reject the SC-monitored NRC on the plea that the 2019 NRC included many people who should not have been in the register and excluded many people who are genuine citizens. As per a rough estimate, around 15 lakh people excluded from the NRC are Hindus,” Tyagi said and added, “Now, the BJP leadership should clarify whether they would implement the SC-monitored NRC in Assam.”

Tyagi also pointed out that JD(U) chief and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar too is not in favour of the NRC in Bihar.

“Senior JD(U) leader and poll strategist Prashant Kishor , after having a long meeting with Nitish Kumar in Patna on Saturday, told media persons outside the Bihar CM’s house that Nitish ji is not in favour of the NRC,” Tyagi told TOI, adding, “Now even Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has assured a delegation of Muslims that his government will not implement the NRC.”

Earlier in the day, Kishor – a day after his long meeting with Nitish-- made a fresh salvo against the NRC, drawing a parallel with the Narendra Modi government's move to demonetise high-value notes in 2016.

“The idea of nationwide NRC is equivalent to demonetization of citizenship. invalid till you prove it otherwise. The biggest sufferers would be the poor and the marginalized we know from experience,” tweeted Kishor, adding the hashtag “#NotGivingUP.”

