West Bengal minister Udayan Guha, a Trinamool Congress leader from North Bengal, set off a new controversy on Thursday with his comments at a public event where he advised the audience to think about "wrenching off the beard and moustache after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections" in a reference to BJP MP and Union Minister Nisith Pramanik who sports a beard and moustache.
In a video played of his speech played out by local news channels, Mr Guha, who is the state North Bengal Development minister, claimed that the general election will be preceded by a huge victory by the Trinamool in the panchayat polls due next year. He was speaking at a public meeting at Shukarur Kuti gram panchayat area in Dinhata assembly segment of which Guha is the lawmaker.
North Bengal has become a battleground between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress as the TMC tries to recover lost ground in an area where the BJP has made inroads.
Mr Guha was purportedly seen saying at a party workers' meeting on Wednesday that Mr Pramanik has ignored his voters and should "get the treatment he deserves from the public" when he is trounced in the next Lok Sabha poll. He said that the union minister had never set his foot in the area since winning the Coochbehar seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.
"Nisith Pramanik will never care for you. He did not reciprocate the faith of the electors after his 2019 Lok Sabha win from Coochbehar. Now help win the 2023 panchayat polls with overwhelming majority in the district. That will pave the way for Pramanik's ouster in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. Think about wrenching off his beard and moustache after it," Mr Guha said. PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Reacting to the statement by Mr Guha, BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya told reporters, "Finding the carpet slipping away from under their feet, TMC leaders like Udayan Guha are making all sorts of tasteless, crass and wild comments." He said that the people of Bengal will give a befitting reply to TMC in the panchayat and Lok Sabha polls.
TMC spokesperson Joy Prakash Majumder said, "It was more of a rhetoric as Udayan Guha's intention was to stand by TMC activists and common people in the face of terror unleashed by Pamanik's men in Coochbehar district and to fightback the BJP ahead of the panchayat polls. However his (Guha's) way of expression could have been different," he added.
Mr Guha had won the Dinhata assembly by-poll in November 2021 after losing the same seat to Mr Pramanik earlier that year in the state assembly election. The by-poll had been necessitated as Mr Pramanik vacated the seat on being appointed as Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Youth Affairs and Sports.
Mr Pramanik had joined BJP from the Trinamool Congress before the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
He is yet to comment on Mr Guha's remark.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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