Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from West Bengal on Tuesday asked the Election Commission of India to act against Trinamool Congress leader Naren Chakraborty for allegedly threatening voters, India Today reported.
West Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar claimed that the election commissioner has assured action, ANI reported.
On Tuesday morning, BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya shared the video on Twitter in which Chakraborty is heard threatening voters.
“TMC’s Pandaveswar [Asansol] MLA Naren Chakraborty, is seen issuing open threats to BJP voters and supporters, asking them not to come out and vote, or else face consequences,” Malviya wrote. “Such criminals should be behind bars, but in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee patronises them.”
Chakraborty had held a meeting with the party workers in his Pandaveshwar constituency ahead of the Asansol bypolls that are scheduled to take place on April 12.
“Those who are staunch BJP supporters… they need to be taught a lesson,” Chakraborty had said. “Tell them that if we go to the polling booth, we will assume that you would vote for the BJP. It’s on your risk where you would stay after the voting.”
Chakraborty further threatened BJP supporters by saying that they can “stay in peace” only if they don’t vote for the party.
“…if you don’t go to vote, we will assume that you have supported us [Trinamool Congress], then you can stay in peace, earn your livelihood, run your business...We are with you,” he said.
Suvendu Adhikari, leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, said that Chakraborty was “issuing diktats to his underlings”.
Former Mayor of Asansol Jitendra Tiwari said that Chakraborty has resorted to threats since he had accepted Trinamool Congress’s defeat in the bypolls, ANI reported.
“He [Chakraborty] is a disciple of Anubrata Mondal, who may go to jail after a few days,” Tiwari said. “The way Chakraborty is issuing threats to the BJP supporters, it seems he will accompany Mondal soon in the jail,”
Mondol is allegedly involved in a cattle smuggling case.
The bypolls
The Asansol constituency fell vacant after singer Babul Supriyo resigned as an MP in October last year – a month after he had left BJP and joined the Trinamool Congress.
Supriyo, who won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 general elections on a BJP ticket, had quit active politics in July last year after he was dropped from Narendra Modi’s Union Cabinet during a reshuffle.
On March 13, however, Supriyo was announced as the Trinamool Congress candidate for the bypoll in Ballygunge Assembly seat. The seat fell vacant after sitting MLA Subrata Mukherjee passed away after a brief illness in November last year.
Actor Shatrughan Sinha was announced as the Trinamool Congress candidate for the Asansol Lok Sabha bypoll.
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