Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from West Bengal’s Ghatal constituency Bharati Ghosh has stirred a controversy by threatening Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers. A video shared by news agency ANI where Ghosh can be seen telling two TMC workers that she would bring musclemen from Uttar Pradesh and kill them like a dog if they dared to act smart. "Get inside your houses and do not try to show your smartness here. There will be no place to hide. I will drag you out of your house and kill you like a dog.... I will bring over 1,000 men from UP, put them inside your residence and teach you a lesson," the BJP nominee said.

Ghosh is a former IPS officer and was once a close aide of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, but resigned from the party in 2017 to join BJP after she was transferred out of West Midnapore. She was later accused of extortion by the state Criminal Investigation Department.

Watch the video here:


Reacting to the incident, West Bengal chief minister said that the BJP candidate must stop threatening people. “The BJP has nominated two candidates here - one man and a woman. The woman is accused of money laundering. Both of them are abusing our candidates. I will tell her not to force me to open my mouth. If I share the texts you (Bharati) had sent me while you were in the police service, I will not have to tell people anything more,” Banerjee said at an election rally organised in Ghatal.

Shortly before this incident, the chief minister warned Ghosh, without naming her, not to cross the limit of decency, otherwise, she will be arrested. Ghosh was accused of abusing police personnel and rival party workers earlier also.

Senior TMC leader Parthat Chatterjee said in Kolkata that the party will move the EC to complain against Ghosh, who was once the superintendent of police in West Midnapore district in which Ghatal falls, for this comment. EC sought a report from the district administration after taking suo motto cognizance of the incident, officials said in Kolkata.

Ghosh was the West Midnapore SP for more than six years. The officer was transferred as commandant of the third battalion of the state armed police on December 26, 2017. She joined the BJP on February 4 and was nominated for Ghatal seat which will go to polls on May 12.