After mysterious sabbatical, Mithun Chakraborty resurfaces in Bengal politics on BJP side

Actor Mithun Chakraborty, who had joined Bharatiya Janata Party last year immediately before the state assembly elections, visited the party’s West Bengal state head office on Monday. However, the Trinamool Congress accused him of “betrayal” on Tuesday. Chakraborty had represented TMC in Rajya Sabha between 2014 and 2016, before his resignation.

Chakraborty was vague about his whereabouts for the past year and said he had not been keeping well. But “now he has been called and been assigned a task by the party,” which he could not disclose, he said.

The actor called himself a party ‘cadre’, who will abide by whatever is asked of him but was tight-lipped about campaigning for the upcoming panchayat elections. However, he said he was extremely happy with the BJP’s performance in assembly elections: rising from three seats to 77, and there was no reason for being disappointed.

Speculations are rife about what the former superstar had on his mind, and what the state party unit can gain—even though the party which was confident of winning over 200 seats in the 2021 assembly elections was restricted to 77 seats in a house of 294.

Trinamool Congress was extremely scathing of this development. “Where was he for a year?...Who had stopped him from coming?…As an actor on the big screen, Mithun Chakraborty definitely could be popular with everyone. But in politics he is a flop,” Kunal Ghosh, TMC’s spokesperson and state general secretary, said.

Ghosh also alleged that the person who was sent to the Rajya Sabha by party chief Mamata Banerjee left his term midway fearing central investigation agencies (concerning a case), and later stood against the party, by siding with the BJP.

Mithun-da might not be popular among fellow state politicians, his dance moves and dialogues are still admired by his followers in towns and villages all over the state.

Interestingly, the actor-turned-politician is currently shooting a Bengali film with actor Dev, whose given name is Deepak Adhikari and is a Trinamool’s Lok Sabha MP.

The next big fight the parties are waiting to face in the state is the panchayat elections in 2023. And immediately after, will be the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. Could Mithun-da turn things better, for the BJP in Bengal? For a political counter, the Trinamool too has a superstar on its side, Shatrughan Sinha, who recently succeeded in snatching the Asansol Lok Sabha seat away from the BJP in the by-election, for the Trinamool.