TMC DEMANDS ACTION AGAINST MITHUN'S 'INCENDIARY COMMENTS'

The political atmosphere in Bengal is getting heated up as the two parties gear up for bypolls to six Assembly seats next month.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

The Trinamool Congress today demanded that the BJP take strict action against Dadaheb 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..."