Union Home Minister Amit Shah with actor and party leader Mithun Chakraborty at the BJP’s membership drive in Kolkata on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)
Actor and BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty on Sunday said the party would do anything to dethrone West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress in the 2026 Assembly polls and ensure that the ‘masnad‘ (throne) will be of the saffron party. The Trinamool Congress mocked the BJP, saying it did not take the veteran actor seriously.
“A Trinamool Congress leader (Humayun Kabir) said he would cut and throw BJP supporters in river Bhagirathi’. I thought the Chief Minister would take action against him, but she didn’t,” Chakraborty said, at an event in Kolkata where the BJP initiated a membership drive.
“I am saying, if needed, we will cut them and throw them in the graves, not in Bhagirathi. This is not Mithun the actor, but Mithun of 1968,” the 74-year-old actor-politician added.
Earlier, Chakraborty, who received India’s highest film honour, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, this year, was felicitated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the inauguration of a BJP membership drive in Kolkata.
After the felicitation, the actor-politician called upon the BJP functionaries to ensure one crore membership in the campaign that will last till November 30. He said that he will join the party’s membership campaign in the state in November.
Chakraborty said he was pained at the Lok Sabha results in the state, which saw the BJP coming down from 18 in 2019 to 12 out of 42 seats in this year’s general election.
He asserted that he had campaigned for the party for 37 days in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and cautioned that no one should try to browbeat BJP’s voters into not casting their votes in the 2026 Assembly polls.
TRINAMOOL CONGRESS HITS BACK
Trinamool Congress’s general secretary Jay Prakash Majumdar hit back at Chakraborty, asserting that the BJP did not take him seriously and accused him of stoking violence with his remarks.
“No one takes him seriously as a political leader and his dialogues. The leader whose comments he spoke about was censored. In the presence of Amit Shah, he is talking about violence. Can he be censored?”
Majumdar took on Amit Shah for his statement on the BJP forming a government in West Bengal after the 2026 Assembly polls.
“This is a pathetic statement by Amit Shah. He said the same thing in 2016, 2019 and 2021. He is saying the same thing again. The BJP is not learning from its history,” he said.
He asserted that the BJP will lose bypolls in all six Assembly seats that will be held on November 13. Polling will be held in Sitai, Madarihat, Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur and Taldangra.
Citing Amit Shah’s statement that a BJP government was needed to ensure Durga Puja festival was held peacefully in West Bengal, Majumdar said his remarks had no relevance.
“Amit Shah was searching for some talking points. His office gave him some old talking points. It was said so many times. I feel pity for his office,” Majumdar said
