2019 Lok Sabha polls are about establishing democracy, says Amit Shah in Kolkata

BJP president Amit Shah told a press conference in Kolkata that the party would grant citizenship to refugees who had come from Bangladesh, and described the 2019 Lok Sabha election as a contest about taking India to new heights and establishing democracy.

Citizenship Bill first, then NRC

Shah said the BJP’s manifesto, the Sankalp Patra, clearly committed the party to giving citizenship to refugees from Bangladesh, whether Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain or Christian.

He laid out the order in which the party intended to act: the Citizenship Amendment Bill would come first so that refugees received citizenship, and a National Register of Citizens would follow. Refugees had no reason to worry, he said, but infiltrators did. The NRC would not be limited to Bengal but would cover the whole country, he added.

Shah claimed the bill would be passed once the party’s position in the Rajya Sabha changed, which he expected by 2020.

Remarks on Bengal and candidates

Shah alleged that democracy had ceased to function in West Bengal and that law and order in the state had collapsed.

Asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would also contest from West Bengal, he said there was no such plan at present.

On Sadhvi Pragya, whose candidature had drawn controversy, the BJP president said she had been given a clean chit after a false case was filed against her.

What happened next

The BJP won 303 of 543 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, counted on 23 May 2019. Amit Shah became Union Home Minister in May 2019, and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was passed by Parliament in December 2019.

See also: Bharatiya Janata Party, election news

Originally published on 22 April 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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