Mamata Banerjee,
the chief minister of West Bengal, took to her state ambassador Shah Rukh Khan’s
defense in Mumbai Wednesday saying that the Bollywood superstar has been victimised.
Coming down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the
Centre, Mamata Banerjee said the BJP is a “cruel and undemocratic party”.

Mamata Banerjee, who’s
party the Trinamool Congress, is seeking to make a national impression by
spreading to as far as Goa in the west to Tripura in the east is on a two-day trip
to Maharashtra in what political observers believe to be a coalition-building
exercise ahead of the 2024 elections.

In Mamata Banerjee’s
Mumbai speech, veteran film director Mahesh Bhatt also found mention. “Mahesh
ji, you have been victimised. Shah Rukh Khan has been victimised. If we have to
win, we have to fight and speak out wherever you can. You guide us and give us
advice as a political party,”

The West Bengal
chief minister further said that India as a country loves manpower and not
muscle power. “We are facing a cruel undemocratic party the BJP. If we are
together, we will win,” the Trinamool chief said.

In her speech,
Mamata Banerjee referred to the close link between Maharashtra and Bengal and
invoked Bengal’s iconic poet Rabindranath Tagore and his poem on the Maratha
king Shivaji.

Mamata Banerjee’s
victory against the BJP in the West Bengal Assembly elections catapulted her
into national politics as a potential leader of a combined opposition. She is
being helped by ace political strategist Prashant Kishore and has been on a
recruiting journey taking in several popular faces from across the country into
her party.

Banerjee’s inroads
into spaces where the Congress was dominant shows that she seeks to occupy
spaces that an apparently anchorless Congress is struggling with. The Congress,
on the other hand, has accused Mamata of “splitting the secular vote”.

Mamata Banerjee’s
Wednesday meet in Mumbai was attended by activists Teesta Setalvad and Medha
Patkar, former Congress leader Sanjay Jha, Sudheendra Kulkarni, Shatrughan Sinha,
author Shoba De, and a large-sized contingent from Bollywood, including Swara
Bhaskar, Rahul Bose and Konkona Sen Sharma.