Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 7: The popular Bengali and Hindi film actor Mithun Chakraborty, lately known for his close relations with the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, has finally joined the BJP on Sunday ending days and weeks of speculation.
The 70-year old actor, famous for his lead role as a disco dancer in the yesteryear, joined the BJP ahead of the prime minister Narendra Modi’s mega election rally, his first since the declaration of elections in West Bengal, at the huge Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata and was present on the dais alongside the BJP’s top election campaigner. The party sources said Chakraborty was likely to be projected the BJP’s chief ministerial face in West Bengal to take on the incumbent and chief of the Trinamool Congress.Mamata Banerjee.
Popularly known among the Bengali audience as “Mithun-da,” Chakraborty projected himself as the “dada” who had “never left his brothers” as against Mamata Banerjee known as “didi” who Modi said had “forgotten” her promise to bring about “real change” in her state. Modi promised the Bengal voters that the BJP if voted to power would herald in “Asol Parivartan” (the real change) bringing about development in the state that was “stalled” by the TMC.
On popular demand, Mithun Chakraborty delivered several of his famous film dialogues including one that says “I am a real Cobra,” and told the audience, “I do what I say. Dada has never left you,” which apparently had reference to his having shifted to Mumbai from Kolkata and later to Ooty before he recently returned to Kolkata.
Going down the memory lane, he said it was almost a dream coming true for him that he was sharing the dais with the “world’s most popular leader.” He said “When I was 18, I also had a dream of working for people. This dream is also coming true today,” Chakraborty said.
Formerly a Rajya Sabha member of the TMC, Chakraborty quit the upper house, the TMC and politics in 2014 after his name was dragged in “Sharada chit fund scam” in which he was alleged to have received money from the dubious company to protect its interests.
Delivering to the people he promise of “sonar Bangla,” Modi said, “The dream of ‘sonar Bangla’ will be fulfilled. Today, I have come here to assure you of Bengal’s development, to increase investment here, to protect Bengal’s culture and to bring change,” said the Prime Minister.
He also promised developing West Bengal and its capital Kolkata into a ‘city of future’. “The ‘City of Joy’ can be turned into ‘City of Future’. A few days ago, the list of cities came out which ranked them on the basis of ease of living. If NDA government comes to power, we will make sure the infrastructure in Kolkata is given the required push so that it ranks on top in the list,” said Modi.
This was one of the many rallies the BJP has planned for Modi in West Bengal to give a boost to the party’s prospects in the upcoming election. In 2019, it won a majority of Lok Sabha seats in north Bengal and this year, the party has thrown a challenge to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the TMC have, however claimed that the TMC would retain power defeating the BJP’s challenge. Banerjee has made it an ‘outsider vs local’ battle, projecting herself as “daughter of Bengal.”
Modi also had a pun at Banerjee recently having tried a ride on e-scooty to protest against rising prices of fuel. During the five kilometer drive to the West Bengal secretariat building “Nabanna,” which many of her critics had described as “Mamata circus,” she had a near fall and was saved by her security staff.
“Glad that you didn’t fall off the scooty, otherwise you would have made the state where it was manufactured your enemy,” Modi commented. In a jibe at her shifting constituency from decade-old Bhawanipur to Nandigram, Modi said, “We don’t want anyone to get hurt. But your scooty landed in Nandigram instead of going to Bhawanipur, nothing can be done now.”
Taking a dig at TMC’s ‘Khela Hobe’ poll pitch, the Prime Minister said, “Didi must listen to this voice that is erupting and saying – “TMC’er khela sesh” (TMC’s game is over). Development begins!”
Attacking the TMC government in the state, Modi said the democratic system had allegedly been destroyed in the state and the BJP, he said, would strengthen it. He also promised to re-establish public faith in government systems, in the police, and the administration.
AS Modi was attacking the TMC in Kolkata, Banerjee led a rally in distant Siliguri protesting against the price rise of gas cylinders. Thousands of women joined the rally carrying cut-outs of gas cylinders which she said was going out of the reach of the common masses.
“Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are the only syndicate in India. Covid pandemic happened, fuel prices rose but the prime minister is nowhere to be found. You get free rice but to cook it you spend on gas,” Banerjee said. “He says there is no pariborton in Bengal, pariborton in Delhi. The prime minister is lying everyday. Before election Ujwala, after election there’s jumla,” she said.
“Kerosene is not available. One crore people in Bengal use it. Petrol-diesel (prices are) up. Gas up…even last night. That’s why I decided to take the scooter to work,” she said. “Modi is selling the country. This government is anti-people, anti-women, anti-farmer, and anti-young generation. We want this government to go,” she said.