West Bengal Agriculture Minister Tapan Dasgupta raked a controversy ahead of the state assembly elections after he was heard threatening voters with dire consequences if they did not vote in his favour.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate from Saptagram was heard saying at a public meeting in Hooghly that areas that don’t vote for him “will not get electricity and water supply”.
“Electricity and water will not reach areas from which I do not get votes. It is simple. They can ask the Bharatiya Janata Party for it,” the West Bengal minister said on March 6, according to an India Today report.
Tapan Dasgupta was voted to power in 2011 and won the 2016 Bengal elections too. He is fighting polls on a TMC ticket for the third time in the 2021 West Bengal election.
Notably, TMC MLA Hamidul Rahman was also caught threatening voters recently. He had said at a public event held in Dinajpur that “traitors will be dealt with after the election”.