Hummingbird News Desk
KOLKATA, 7 MARCH: Actor Mithun Chakraborty, who was once a TMC Rajya Sabha MP, has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party at PM Modi’s rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata ahead of his address.
Speculation has been doing the rounds over Mithun Chakraborty’s recent meetings with BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Mithun Chakraborty arrived at the ground at around 12 noon and was welcomed by BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya, Suvendu Adhikari, Dilip Ghosh, Mukul Roy, Roopa Ganguly and others at the Brigade Parade Grounds where PM Modi is set to address a mega rally.
BJP’s state in-charge Kailash Vijayavargiya had met up with Chakraborty at his residence on Saturday. He said, “I have spoken with him over the telephone, he’s going to come today. I will be able to make a comment only after a detailed discussion with him.”
The actor was handed the party’s flag by Vijayavargiya and state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh.
Mithun Chakraborty, a yesteryear Bengali superstar, who still enjoys a massive fan following in Bengal was known for his active Left politics after which he joined the TMC but resigned a few years later. After remaining out of the political circle for years, Mithun Chakraborty has now come back to join the BJP ahead of the high stakes 2021 Bengal assembly election.
Ahead of the rally, Kolkata has been virtually covered with a tight security blanket by the city police and security agencies from the Centre. Security agencies have put up four-layered barricades in front of the podium from where PM Modi is slated to address the crowd. As many as 1,500 CCTV cameras were installed in and around the Brigade Parade ground area. A central monitoring control room was also set up behind the main stage.
This rally comes a day after BJP announced its first list of 57 candidates for the polls. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has announced its 291 candidates while leaving three seats for its ally Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.
The saffron party won three seats in the 2016 Assembly election but in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 18 of the 42 seats while TMC won 22. Congress won two and the Left got none.
