 "BJP's Himanta Biswa Sarma. Photo: Wikipedia")
Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said the number of people excluded from the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state will "drastically" change at the end of the process of claims and objections.
The final draft of the NRC in the state is not a major issue as it is not the final one, he told reporters here on Thursday.
"It is not proper to come to a conclusion regarding the NRC in Assam. It is just a draft. In our NRC, names of many people are not there. This number will drastically change after claims and objections are taken into consideration," said Sarma, who is also the convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance, formed by the BJP along with regional political parties.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who was present during the interaction with reporters, said he was unaware of any demand for updating NRC in the state.
The NRC revision has rocked Assam since the publication of its final draft on July 30. Names of over 400,000 people have been excluded from the draft of the NRC.
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Sarma suggested that other states could replicate the Assam model of NRC after the process was complete.
"Let Assam produce a correct and perfect NRC. Then people should try to replicate it," he said.
On NDA ally Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura's demand of NRC revision in Tripura, Sarma said there was no "huge requirement" for such a decision.
"Going by the demography of Tripura, I don't think there is a huge requirement. Assam's demography has changed. NRC revision is being done in Assam as per the Assam Accord. But in Tripura, there is no accord, no cut-off date, neither in any way to generate any legacy document," he said.
Another regional party, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura, too had demanded an NRC revision and deportation of foreigners who had illegally migrated to Tripura from neighbouring Bangladesh.
