Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday said the names of all the people included in the voter list till 2019 should be in the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Gogoi had earlier demanded that all people whose names were in the voter list till 2014 should be in the NRC. “By 2019, names of many more people were entered in the voter list. They should also be included in the NRC,” he said.

Organisations like the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) have been claiming that the voter list in Assam contains names of numerous illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and a correct NRC will help detect, strip them of voting rights and deport them.

Gogoi was talking to President Ram Nath Kovind’s reference to the government’s commitment to implement the NRC “on a priority basis in areas affected by infiltration” in his address at the joint session of Parliament on Thursday.

Gogoi’s demand has come at a time the NRC authorities are working to publish the final NRC by July 31 according to the direction of the Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the NRC update process.

“On the one hand we have a voter list with names of Indian people who have rights to vote. On the other, we are going to get an NRC which is also a list of Indian citizens but will not have names of many them. The government should give precedence to the voter list over the NRC,” he said.

Gogoi had earlier said the NRC would be “waste paper”.

Gogoi also referred to Kovind’s mention about government’s promise to amend the Citizenship Act. He said it would be a mistake for the BJP to think the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha election as a referendum to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

“Numerous issues were on play during the elections. By winning the elections, the BJP cannot take it for granted that people have voted them to pass the bill in Parliament,” he said. He reiterated the Congress’ opposition to the bill.