The Trinamool Congress today demanded that the BJP take strict action against Dadasaheb Phalke award winning actor and party leader Mithun Chakraborty for his “incendiary comments against Muslims” while addressing a public meeting alongside Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday.
In the meeting, Chakraborty, 74, referred to a pre-Lok Sabha election comment by the Trinamool’s Humayun Kabir – who had threatened rival party workers on religious grounds, and was censured by the Election Commission – and called on BJP karyakartas to “chop them (up) and bury you in the ground”.
The violent rhetoric followed Kabir’s comment in May, as he was campaigning for the party’s Lok Sabha election candidate in Murshidabad district. At a rally, he reportedly said: “You are 30 per cent (of the people here) but we are 70 per cent… if you think you can demolish mosques and Muslims will sit back and relax… (you are wrong). I will leave politics if I don’t drown you people in the Bhagirathi…”
On Sunday, Mithun Chakraborty said: “A leader says there are 70 per cent Muslims and 30 per cent Hindus (and) that he will ‘cut’ and throw them in the Bhagirathi… I thought Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) would say something. She didn’t… so now I am saying, we will chop them (up) and bury them in the ground…” he said.
“I am not the Chief Minister… but I am saying this,” the 74-year-old actor raged: “We will do anything to win the masnad (throne) of Bengal… it will belong to the BJP after the 2026 Assembly election.”
“I am saying it again and again… we will do anything (to win the 2026 election) … anything. I am saying this with Home Minister Amit Shahji sitting here – we will do anything,” he warned ominously.
The political atmosphere in Bengal is getting heated up as the two parties gear up for bypolls to six Assembly seats next month. Chakraborty, 74, repeated this threat, calling the river “our mother” and declaring, “I say we will cut you up and throw you, not in the Bhagirathi because that is our mother, but we will throw you in the ground.”
Chakraborty then slammed the Trinamool Congress for its communal stand and said: “We will do anything… we will do anything”, and accused the Bengal State Government of not allowing the Hindu community to cast votes.
The actor – speaking at a membership drive – then called on BJP supporters to join the party’s karyakartas. “We want those people who will fight… who can stand up and say, ‘Shoot me… let me see how many bullets you have’,” he said, taking a swipe at the Trinamool over multiple incidents of pre- and post-poll violence in the state, “But we don’t want those who join for money.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah was present at the event; he had just felicitated the National Award-winning actor for being presented with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award on October 8.
Chakraborty then also uttered a second violent threat. “If you cut down one fruit from our trees… we will cut down four of yours,” he said, as Shah continued to look on impassively.
The Trinamool hit back swiftly. Party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that if Bharatiya Janata Party was committed to secularism, then it should take immediate action against Mithun Chakraborty.
Another leader, party General Secretary Jay Prakash Majumdar however dismissed Chakraborty as an “inconsequential figure”.
“No one takes him seriously as a political leader… the leader (the Trinamool’s Kabir) whose comment he spoke about was censured (by the Election Commission). But now, in the presence of Amit Shah, Mithun Chakraborty is saying this… will he also be censured now?” Majumdar asked.