Folk singer Basudeb Das Baul, who recently hosted lunch for Home Minister Amit Shah during his two-day visit to Bengal, on Tuesday turned up at the rally of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bolpur. Days after welcoming Shah at his house in Birbhum, Das has now pledged his allegiance to Mamata Banerjee.
Das, according to The Statesman, said, “After Shah left, nobody from the BJP bothered to talk to me although they came to me with the request to host the lunch. I did all the shopping. They only bought the sweets served that day.” The famous folk singer said that he was under ‘no pressure from the TMC’ adding that he ‘came to Mondal voluntarily.’
During his two-day visit to Bengal recently, Shah had stopped at Das’ house briefly to have a meal. Das alleged that he was not allowed to meet his guest during his brief stopover.
In contrast, the Trinamool leader on Tuesday welcomed the singer and placed the Uttoriyo (traditional stoles) around his shoulder that she was wearing herself.
Banerjee requested Das to give his blessings to the crowd with a LIVE performance. As expected, Das obliged the Trinamool leader by giving a LIVE rendition of one of his folk songs. (Watch below).
Mamata Banerjee staged a huge rally in Birbhum with the TMC claiming a turnout of 1.5 lakh people. This is believed to be in response to Shah’s road rally. The BJP had claimed that more than 50,000 people attended their leader’s rally.
The TMC recently caused considerable embarrassment to the BJP by inducting Sujata Mondal, the wife of BJP MP Saumitra Khan, into the party. This was after one of Banerjee’s former cabinet colleagues, Suvendu Adhikari, joined the BJP in Amit Shah’s presence.