Gachhirampara (North Tripura) (PTI): Issues like insurgency and infiltration from Myanmar and Bangladesh should be dealt with by a security council for the North East on the lines of the National Security Council, the BJP said.

"We have demanded the formation of a North East security council to deal with security related issues of the region on a pattern similar to the National Security Council," BJP president Rajnath Singh said.

Stating that insurgency and infiltration had to be dealt with firmly, Singh said, a priority of the NDA, if elected, would be fencing of all borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh as in the west on the Indo-Pak border.

He was campaigning among Reangs from Mizoram sheltered here, for the forthcoming Mizoram assembly polls.

Rajnath said, "it is a matter of deep sorrow that you are now refugees in your own land. We assure you that we will fullfil your demand for a tribal council for Reangs."

He attacked the Mizo National Front led by Zoramthanga and Congress led by Lalthanhawla, saying that these parties had ruled Mizoram for decades and were corrupt. Denying that the BJP was communal, he pointed out that party vice-president G S Goyal was Christian and many leaders were not Hindu.

"Some political quarters are labelling the BJP as communal, but our party is the only party in the country which is non-communal and secular in nature."

About 35000 Reangs who had migrated to Tripura following ethnic clashes with Mizos since 1997 were now sheltered in six camps in Kanchanpur subdivision of North Tripura district.

The Election Commission has allowed the Reangs to exercise their franchise through postal ballots.