Shiv Sena jumps on the bandwagon, pitches for NRC in Mumbai

Hours after the Centre published the final National Register of Citizens for Assam on Saturday, the Shiv Sena demanded a similar exercise in Mumbai in an apparent attempt to cash in on the issue ahead of the assembly elections.

Shiv Sena leader and Union minister Arvind Sawant stressed the need to "weed out a large number of immigrants illegally living" in the metropolis. He said Sena was the first to have raised the issue of Bangladeshis illegally residing in India. "This will hold good for the unity and internal security of the country," he said.

His party colleague Sanjay Raut said there are nearly 1 crore Bangladeshis in greater Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and in the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region but they are nowhere on record.

Raut, a Rajya Sabha member and the executive editor of Sena mouthpiece Saamna, said, "An NRC in Mumbai will help the citizens of the country, especially Indian Muslims who are defamed and blamed for the acts of these Muslims from outside India. Home minister Amit Shah had promised this earlier."

—Zee Media Newsroom