BJP will make every effort to remove Trinamool Congress from Bengal by 2026, says Mithun Chakraborty

Actor and BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty on Sunday said the party would go all out to dethrone West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress in the 2026 Assembly elections and ensure that the ‘masnad‘ (throne) will be of the saffron party. The Trinamool Congress mocked the BJP and said it was not taking the veteran actor seriously.

“A Trinamool Congress leader (Humayun Kabir) said that he would cut off BJP supporters and throw them into the Bhagirathi river. I thought the chief minister would take action against him, but she didn’t,” Chakraborty said at an event in Calcutta where the BJP launched a membership drive.

“I say if necessary, we will cut them off 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.

Previously, Chakraborty, who received India’s highest film honor, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, this year, he was felicitated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the inauguration of a BJP membership drive in Calcutta.

After the felicitation, the actor-politician appealed to the BJP officials to ensure one crore membership in the campaign that will last till November 30. He said he will join the party’s membership drive in the state in November.

Chakraborty said he was hurt by the Lok Sabha results in the state BJP drops to 12 of the 42 seats from 18 in 2019 in this year’s general election.

He claimed that he had campaigned for the party for 37 days in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and warned that no one should try to convince the BJP voters not to cast their votes in the 2026 Assembly elections.

TRINAMOOL CONGRESS CLAPS BACK

Hitting back at Chakraborty, Trinamool Congress general secretary Jay Prakash Majumdar alleged that the BJP was not taking him seriously and accused him of inciting violence through his comments.

“No one takes him seriously as a political leader and his dialogues. The leader whose comments he spoke 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 elections.

“This is a pathetic statement by Amit Shah. He said the same thing in 2016, 2019 and 2021. He’s saying the same thing again. The BJP is not learning from its history,” he said.

He claimed that the BJP will lose the by-elections in all the six Assembly seats to be held on November 13. The elections 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 comments were irrelevant.

‘Amit Shah was looking for talking points. His office gave him some old talking points. It’s been said so many times. I feel sorry for his office,” Majumdar said.

(with inputs from PTI)