Left, Congress jointly hold protest rally against CAA-NRC-NPR in Kolkata

The rally, which saw a sea of red flags and banners with slogans demanding the rollback of CAA, began at Subodh Mullick Square in Bowbazar area, travelled through downtown Kolkata and ended at Mahatma Gandhi Road close to the northern part of the city.

Though 17 Left parties and Congress had initially planned to carry out the march, two others parties- WPI and Swaraj Party- had later joined the rally which was spearheaded by Left Front chairman Biman Bose, CPI-M leader Surjya Kanta Mishra and West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra.

Hitting out at the BJP, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya said, "The CAA and NRC can't take place. The BJP won't be successful in dividing Hindus and Muslims. We won't let the CAA to be implemented in the state."

Suspecting a bonhomie between the BJP and West Bengal ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bhattacharya said, "The TMC is saying they won't allow CAA in the state. But we don't know what secret understanding it has with the BJP. Even if TMC government allows, we won't let the implementation of CAA in the state."

Left Front chairman Biman Bose rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's proposal to fight the BJP jointly as of now and said, "We won't jointly protest with the TMC until they stop playing competitive communal politics with the BJP. If the TMC stops playing communal politics, we will analyse the proposal."

All India Forward Bloc leader Naren Chatterjee said, "It is the people's protest which led BJP and TMC to backtrack over NPR. Both the parties are anti-people."

Following the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, in Parliament, Kolkata has been witnessing protest rallies by several political outfits as well as students.

Several Chief Ministers, including Mamata Banerjee, have already stated they won't allow the implementation of CAA, which will grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi but not Muslim refugees who came to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan before 2015, in their respective states.

Though the Opposition is taking CAA, NRC and NPR in one bracket, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the three are not linked and the union cabinet has never discussed NRC.

Modi even accused the Congress-led Opposition of misleading people over CAA.