The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Monday ended its alliance in Assam with the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) over Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.
"We have been saying for a long time that if Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 is brought in Lok Sabha we will end our relationship with BJP. Our leaders met Home Minister (Rajnath Singh) and expressed that AGP is going to break the alliance," AGP spokesperson Dilip Patgiri told ANI.
This comes hours after the Centre cleared the redrafted bill that seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 by granting Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014.
The bill is likely to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Earlier in November last year, several protests were witnessed across the state of Assam against the bill.