New Delhi: The already charged political climate in West Bengal, where the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are set for by-polls in six Assembly seats next month, escalated further on Sunday after actor and BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty’s sensitive statements in Kolkata.
Chakraborty, 74, evoked an earlier controversial comment by Trinamool leader Humayun Kabir, who had threatened opposition party workers on religious grounds ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, a comment that had led to Election Commission censure. In response, Chakraborty told BJP supporters to “chop them up and bury them in the ground.”
“A leader once said there are 70 percent Muslims and 30 percent Hindus, that he would ‘cut’ and throw them into the Bhagirathi. I expected Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to respond, but she didn’t. So now, I am saying we will chop them up and bury them in the ground,” he said, according to an NDTV report.
Chakraborty says BJP will claim Bengal in 2026
Chakraborty, who spoke in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, said, “We will do anything to win the throne of Bengal in the 2026 Assembly election. This state will belong to the BJP.” He added, “I am saying this with Home Minister Amit Shah ji sitting here – we will do anything.”
Addressing the gathering, the actor described the Bhagirathi River as “our mother,” declaring, “We will cut you up and throw you not in the Bhagirathi, but in the ground.” He criticised the Bengal government, accusing it of denying Hindus the right to vote freely.
Kabir’s incendiary comment: ‘70% Muslims won’t sit quiet’
The rhetoric follows a previous comment by Kabir in May while campaigning for a Trinamool candidate in Murshidabad district. At that time, Kabir said, “You are 30 per cent here, but we are 70 per cent… if you think you can harm mosques and Muslims will sit quietly, you are wrong. I will leave politics if I don’t drown you in the Bhagirathi.”
Speaking at a BJP membership drive, Chakraborty told supporters to join forces with the party’s karyakartas, saying resilience should be oover material gain. “We want people who will fight and say, ‘Shoot me, let’s see how many bullets you have,’ but we don’t want those who join for money,” he said, indirectly pointing to incidents of pre- and post-election violence in West Bengal.
As Shah looked on, Chakraborty said, “If you take one fruit from our trees, we will take four of yours,” underscoring the confrontational tone as tensions rise ahead of the state’s upcoming by-polls.
