NEDA meets to discuss CAB, BJP worried

A new anti-CAB front has been forged today as the regional political parties of the North East are meeting at Guwahati under the leadership of the Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.

In the anti-CAB meeting, eleven regional political parties of NE including NEDA allies AGP, NPP, NDPP, UDP, JDU, IPFT have united and raised voice against the Bill.

President of the Asom Gana Parishad, Atul Bora has reasserted that it will continue to oppose the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 till its end. The regional party thanked the anti-CAB forces for opposing the Bill.

"A committee to be formed by the anti-CAB regional parties of NE region. The Committee will try to gather support from other political parties against the contentious Bill. This is not a political gimmick, it's a united initiative to stand against the Bill. It is a wake-up call for the indigenous people of North East against external aggression. We called upon all indigenous communities of NE to be united against the forces that are potential threat to the existence of the sons of the soil." – Bora added.

The anti-CAB front has decided to meet President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon.

All the regional parties have opposed to CAB and the BJP realizing the potentiality of the NEDA in the coming election have been playing safe.

The group is expected to exert pressure on the BJP to stop the CAB at Rajya Sabha. At the same time, the BJP is working behind the scene to turn the meeting just a mere formality of tokenism to ventilate the anger.

The BJP is littler nervous because Mizoram and Meghalaya are tough on their stand and refused to accommodate BJP view at this moment.

They will be joined by the JD (U), the NDA's major ally in Bihar, and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which recently snapped ties with the BJP in Assam over the proposed legislation that seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim nationals from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India.

Meghalaya Chief Minister and National People's Party (NPP) president Conrad K Sangma is taking the lead role in convening the all-regional-parties meet on Tuesday, and the AGP is the co-convenor of the meeting, Meghalaya's ruling party NPP leaders said on Monday.

The Mizo National Front (MNF) from Mizoram, the NDPP from Nagaland, the IPFT from Tripura and the SDF from Sikkim, besides the NPP leaderships from Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur have confirmed their participation in the meeting, they said.

KC Tyagi, general secretary of the Nitish Kumar's-headed JD (U), arrived in Guwahati. The party's national vice president, Prashant Kishore, is expected to reach the city.

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga left Aizawl on Monday for Guwahati to attend the meeting of chief ministers and regional parties of the Northeast to be held on Tuesday on the issue of the CAB, ruling MNF party sources said.

Protests against the bill have rocked the Northeast region, with those opposing it contending that it would harm the rights of the indigenous people.

The North East has 25 Lok Sabha seats and the BJP is lookinh to pick up 20 of them using the NEDA route.