District Trinamul leaders posted a minute-long video clip on social media on Saturday that claimed local BJP MP Nisith Pramanik had recently resorted to a “publicity stunt” with a broom on Cooch Behar palace grounds.
After a cultural event at the royal palace, the MP and his associates threw garbage on palace premises and his aides shot a video of the parliamentarian and some others sweeping the place with brooms, Trinamul’s district chief Partha Pratim Roy alleged, with the short clip to apparently back it up.
Pramanik, in Calcutta for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Sunday rally, could not be contacted by this paper, but district BJP leaders brushed aside Trinamul’s claim.
In the video, some persons, one of whom appears to be the MP (The Telegraph could not independently verify the authenticity of the video) are seen scattering items that appear to be pieces of white paper or plastic on palace grounds. After some time, they are seen sweeping the grounds with brooms while two or three persons are recording the activity on their phones.
“This is what the MP and his party leaders do for cheap publicity, using videos shot in a planned manner. First they scatter so-called garbage and pose for a cleaning-up video. The video I posted was shot by a visitor in the palace,” Roy claimed.
Sources said after Union ministry of culture and tourism hosted the three-day Rashtriya Sanskritik Mahotsav on palace premises from February 14 to 16, Trinamul leaders alleged that the palace grounds had been dirtied. Then, Pramanik allegedly took up the task to clean the premises, and videos and pictures of him sweeping the palace grounds surfaced on social media to appreciative comments.
On Saturday, when Trinamul leaders shared the new video of the “staged” clean-up, many commented on this too.
Sanjoy Chakraborty, the district general secretary of BJP in Cooch Behar, said he had not seen the clip uploaded by Trinamul. “I suspect it is a ploy by Trinamul to try and tarnish us (the BJP) ahead of the state elections. Such tactics won’t work,” he said.
