At a party workers’ gathering on Wednesday, Guha, the state’s minister for North Bengal development, is alleged to have said that Pramanik had disregarded his supporters and should “receive the treatment he deserves from the public” after he lost the next Lok Sabha elections.
After winning a resounding victory for the Trinamool Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal minister Udayan Guha allegedly asked Trinamool Congress members to trim Nisith Pramanik’s beard and moustache. This sparked outrage.
The BJP strongly disagreed with the statement and on Thursday reported the minister to the police, requesting that the administration move against him right now.
At a party workers’ gathering on Wednesday, Guha, the state’s minister for North Bengal development, is alleged to have said that Pramanik had disregarded his supporters and should “receive the treatment he deserves from the public” after he lost the next Lok Sabha elections. On Thursday, a video of the purported meeting that allegedly took place in the Dinhata assembly district’s Shukarur Kuti panchayat area and for which Guha is the MLA, surfaced.
He allegedly asserted that the TMC will easily win the upcoming panchayat elections, which are scheduled for next year, before the parliamentary elections in 2024. According to reports, he said that since winning the Cooch Behar seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Union minister had never set foot in the neighbourhood.
“Nisith Pramanik won’t ever be concerned about you. After winning the Cooch Behar seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he failed to repay the electorate’ confidence. Now assist us in sweeping the district in the 2023 panchayat elections. That will make it easier for Pramanik to lose in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024. Consider yanking his beard and moustache off after it,” Guha allegedly remarked. Guha had previously stated that anyone attempting to harm the Trinamool Congress will be pierced with scissors.
Independent verification of the video’s veracity was not possible. In the lead-up to the panchayat elections, minister Guha allegedly threatened the members of the opposing party repeatedly, according to BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh, who made the police complaint in Siliguri.