Union Minister Babul Supriyo has found himself in a spot after he allegedly slapped a man in the Bharatiya Janata Party office in Kolkata’s Tollygunge, where the singer-turned-politician is contesting the West Bengal Assembly elections.
The incident happened when Supriyo was at the party office at Ranikuthi in his constituency to attend a function on the occasion of Doljatra on Sunday.
A video, which has gone viral, showed Supriyo confronting the man, who asked him to start campaigning on the field seriously. The minister asked him to stay quiet but the man further told the BJP leader to stop posing for TV cameras and giving bytes instead of campaigning.
In the video, Supriyo is seen slapping the man once.
However, Supriyo claimed that he did not slap him, but “only gestured to do so”.
“With people coming from one party to another, there can be some Bibhisons and some Mir Jafars (traitors). Some people are definitely trying to create disturbances. I kept my cool despite his provocations,” Supriyo said.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh also defended Supriyo over the incident.
“Babul might have touched the man at the heat of the moment but he did not intend to hit him or harm him physically,” Ghosh said.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the party wanted to know whether the man slapped by Supriyo was “an outsider of the Trinamool Congress or a Bibhison (someone of the BJP)”.
“Those accepting people from other parties with open arms should not make such comments,” he said.
