After going through a stormy campaign session in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections on behalf of the BJP, Bollywood superstar Mithun Chakraborty went into hibernation.
On Monday, he announced his comeback in active politics before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at a press conference at the state headquarters of the BJP in Kolkata.
“I was inactive for some time because of health reasons. But I am fit now. So, I came to Kolkata today and had a meeting with the state BJP president, Sukanta Majumdar. I will work on specific assignments given to me by the party leadership, which I am unable to disclose now,” he said.
Commenting on the results of the BJP in the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls, he said that in his opinion the BJP’s performance was more than satisfactory. “Hitting the bull’s eye at the first chance is not always possible. So, to my opinion, there is no reason to be disheartened by the results, since lots of battles are there in the near future,” he said.
According to him, his comeback to active politics was prompted by his intention to do something positive for the society. “In my personal capacity, I always tried to return something to society against what I got from it. But somewhere now I feel that effort cannot be enough unless you are in a position of power. And whatever I want to do in politics is to serve the society. Personally, I have nothing to gain from politics,” he said.
In his early days as a student of Scottish Church College, Mithun Chakraborty got involved with the Naxalite movement. During the height of his stardom, he was extremely close to Bengali Marxist and former West Bengal minister, late Subhash Chakraborty.
After the 2011 West Bengal elections, which marked the end of the 34-year Left Front rule, he got close to the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee and in 2014 he was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Trinamool Congress. However, differences developed between him and the Trinamool Congress over the Saradha chit fund scam and in December 2016 he resigned from the Rajya Sabha.
The actor-turned politician had joined the BJP on March 7, 2021 at a mega rally in Kolkata in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.