Guwahati: The Congress, CPM and the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) on Wednesday tore into BJP president Amit Shah for saying that 40 lakh people who were excluded from the final draft of NRC in Assam are "illegal infiltrators".

Stating that Shah had made a "false" assertion in the Rajya Sabha by terming all 40 lakh people "ghuspethiya" (infiltrators), leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, urged all members of the House to bring a breach of privilege motion against Shah.

In a statement released to the media on Wednesday, Saikia said names of many genuine Indians were left out of the draft NRC and Shah's "sweeping" comment sought to convert numerous genuine citizens into " ghuspethiya" at one stroke.

"It will hurt the sentiments of all right-thinking residents not only of Assam but India as a whole," he said.

The government has so far not declared people whose names were left out of the final draft of NRC "infiltrators".

It said there was no question of referring them to foreigners tribunals and they were entitled to file claims and objections. The government assured that due opportunity would be given to them before publication of the NRC list.

"The utterance of BJP president claiming that all 40 lakh people excluded in this draft NRC are 'illegal migrants' is causing widespread apprehension," said a statement released by the CPM politburo.

"The way the BJP on Tuesday told the Rajya Sabha that only the BJP had the guts to update the NRC creates an impression that the NRC update process was not done under the monitoring of the Supreme Court but under the instruction of the BJP," said AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal.

Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said he was happy that Shah had admitted that the NRC was the soul of the Assam Accord. "If it is so, will Shah advise his NDA government to withdraw the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which seeks to provide citizenship to Hindu refugees of Bangladesh coming to India on or before December 31, 2014 and make their stand clear?" Gogoi tweeted.