City BJP member and corporator Anil Shirole too feels that instead of Indians fighting each other, all political parties must take a stand on Bangladeshi immigrants. “It is pointless to harm our own brothers,’’ he said.

Not willing to be left out in this race is the NCP, already on the move with a unit exclusively for north Indians that conducts regular meets with around more than 25,000 members in place. City unit president of NCP Jaidev Gaikwad said, “There should be no violation of rights of any Indian. We should instead give them security.”

With nearly 4.5 lakh north Indians in the city, Uttar Bharatiya Vikas Parishad president Satishchandra Dube expressed concern that they were being made pawns in a political game. “While it is good that some of the political parties are stepping out in support of us, we also fear that they are trying to gain political mileage without actually having any empathy for our plight,” he said.

While Dube felt the remedy lay in removing social and economic disparities and having these migrants join the mainstream, the RSS believes it can deliver on this front as they are open to embracing “people from outside the state” in an attempt to rejuvenate its shriveling shakhas.