Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat met veteran Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty at the latter’s Malad residence in north Mumbai on Tuesday morning, sparking speculation about his return to politics in the run-up to the Bengal Assembly elections.
In a development that took everyone by surprise, Bhagwat reached the actor’s bungalow in Malad’s Madh area and spent close to two hours with Mithun and his family members.
A former All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha member, 69-year-old Mithun Da scotched intense speculation about his possible return to active politics more than four years after he resigned as an MP in December, 2016.
Interacting with the waiting mediapersons outside his bungalow after seeing off Bhagwat to his car, Mithun said that he had a “spiritual relationship” with Bhagwat, whom he had met in Lucknow and Nagpur in the past, and said that there was no politics attached to their meeting as “Bhagwat-ji is very fond of my family and had promised to visit my place whenever he is in Mumbai”.
“Do not speculate… Bhagwat and I have a spiritual connect(ion). We had met in Lucknow and I had requested him to visit me whenever he visited Mumbai,” the actor said.
“There was a plan that he would come to my home when he visits Mumbai. It so happened that I returned to Mumbai from Lucknow after a shoot and he too is in Mumbai. So jud gaye hum (we connected),” Mithun said.
“He asked me to bring everyone to Nagpur. That’s all we discussed. He had breakfast. There was no rajneeti (politics), nothing.”
When journalists persisted and posted queries about his decision to quit politics more than four years ago, Mithun Da laughed and quipped: “You are linking (this) because of the (West Bengal) elections… If there were no elections, you wouldn’t have!”
Notwithstanding Mithun Da’s assertions to the contrary, the actor’s meeting with RSS chief should be seen in the context of the forthcoming high-stake Assembly elections in West Bengal, where the BJP is going full throttle to unseat the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC from power.
The BJP has already wooed several senior and middle-rung TMC leaders to its fold in the run-up to the Assembly polls. However, the fact remains the BJP does not have a formidable Bengali face to take on Mamata Banerjee in the elections.
It may be recalled that Mithun Da had come to be associated with the TMC after he was nominated for the RS polls held on February 7, 2014. He went on to win the Rajya Sabha polls. He, however, resigned from Rajya Sabha on December 26, 2016 and quit politics.
Tuesday’s was not the first meeting between Bhagwat and Mithun Da. Mithun had visited the RSS headquarters in Nagpur in 2019. Subsequently, the actor had met the RSS chief in Lucknow in October last year.
