38 TMC MLAs in touch with BJP, claims Mithun Chakraborty

Kolkata: Actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty, who had joined the BJP ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls last year, on Wednesday claimed that 38 TMC MLAs are in touch with the saffron camp.

Of the 38 legislators, 21 are directly in touch with him, he said.

“At least 38 TMC MLAs are in touch with the BJP. Out of them, 21 are personally in touch with me. When I was in Mumbai, I read in newspapers one fine morning that the Shiv Sena and the BJP have formed the government in Maharashtra,” he said while addressing a press conference here.

The TMC, while reacting to his allegations, said the famed actor is "trying to fool the people by making false claims".

Chakraborty said the BJP is in power in 18 states, and the party’s flag will "fly high in a few other states very soon".

“The BJP will not stop its fight in West Bengal. If free and fair polls are held in the state today, the party will form the next government,” he said.

“Such statements are an attempt to fool the masses. It has no relation with reality,” TMC MP Santanu Sen said.

The TMC has 216 MLAs in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly. The opposition BJP has 75 legislators.

However, five saffron party MLAs have joined the ruling party without resigning as legislators.

In Maharashtra, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress collapsed last month after Eknath Shinde raised a banner of revolt against the Sena leadership with a majority of party MLAs.

Shinde was sworn in as the new chief minister of Maharashtra and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as deputy CM in Mumbai.