With thousands of supporters shouting "Jai Sri Ram", the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (24 December) brought out a huge and colourful rally in north Bengal's Siliguri town backing the new citizenship law.

Amid beating of drums and cymbals, former Maharashtra Chief Minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis led the rally that started off from Bagha Jatin Park and ended at Maldaguri near Darjeeling More.

BJP activists and supporters from all eight districts of north Bengal took part in the rally, which drew a large number of people from the Matua Mahasangh - a body of lower caste Hindus who migrated to India from Bangladesh during and after the Partition in 1947.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh, party national secretary Rahul Sinha, and Darjeeling MP Raju Bista were among the participants in the rally. "The people of North Bengal have today overwhelmingly displayed their unflinching support for BJP and the Citizenship Amendment Act," Bista later tweeted.

High on enthusiasm, the participants carried the tricolour and the BJP flag shouting their support for CAA during the "Abhinandan yatra (thanksgiving rally)" that expressed its ratitude to Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi for passing the Act.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)