"There will be no place to hide. I will drag you out of your house and thrash you like dogs," Bharti Ghosh, a BJP candidate in West Bengal told a Trinamool Congress worker on Sunday, May 5, morning, effectively landing her foot in her mouth since it was also caught on camera.
In the video, Ms Ghosh was caught yelling at a Trinamool Congress party worker. She had said, "Do not try to show your smartness here, get inside your home. There will be no place to hide. I will drag you out of your house and thrash you like dogs. I will bring over 1,000 men from Uttar Pradesh to beat you up." There were also some obscenities in her rant.
#WATCH:BJP candidate from Ghatal, WB & ex IPS officer Bharati Ghosh threatens TMC workers,says,"You are threatening people to not cast their votes. I will drag you out of your houses and thrash you like dogs. I will call a thousand people from Uttar Pradesh to beat you up." (4/5) pic.twitter.com/GvX650F6n9
— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2019
The tirade was triggered during a campaign on Saturday at West Midnapore when a few people told her that TMC workers threatened to not vote when the constituency goes into polls on May 12.
Bharti Ghosh is a former police officer who used police chief of West Midnapore district. Her close-knit relationship with West Bengal chief minister was well known and Ghosh also used to call the Trinamool Congress chief as 'didi' or elder sister. However, a falling out between them caused them to go their separate ways.
In response to this, Mamata Banerjee said that Ghosh should not cross the Laxman Rekha. She added, "Don't make me open my mouth about you." The TMC party chief made these comments at an election campaign at Ghatal constituency.
Bharti was fielded by the BJP to contest from the Ghatal constituency to run against Bengali actor and TMC candidate, Deepak Adhikari, who is popularly known as Dev. Dev commented on the incident. According to NDTV, he said, "I just don't believe in this kind of politics. It is unfortunate. I know Bharati di for some time. But my respect for her has decreased. I don't want a leader like this, someone who publicly threatens people. Let the people decide."
This is not the first time this week where a Kanpur BJP party member was caught on camera threatening another person. Suresh Awasthi, a BJP leader from Kanpur was caught threatening a police officer on April 29, Monday during the fourth phase of elections. They were arguing about a polling issue which made Awasthi burst out, yelling at the policeman saying that the latter was on his hit list and that they will "meet tomorrow".
