The faction-ridden state unit of the BJP got embroiled into another controversy as state vice-president Sabyasachi Bagchi claimed that Chhatradhar Mahato, leader of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), was a member of the party. Bagchi made the claim on Sunday during a press conference at the party office followed by a meeting of the state executive.

“Mahato has been a member of our party since 1999 and he renewed the membership in 2003. We have documentary evidence to prove it. The state government is harassing our members by branding them as Maoists,” he later told The Indian Express. “They have arrested our member, Bikash Mahato,” he added.

Chhatradhar Mahato, however, refuted Bagchi’s claim. “This is absolutely false. I was once associated with the Trinamool Congress and even worked for them in the last Assembly elections. But I was never a member of the BJP. In fact, I am not the person they are referring to. I never lived in the village that Bagchi mentioned,” he said.

BJP state general secretary Shamik Bhattacharya also refuted Bagchi’s statement. “Colonel Bagchi is sick. He has lost his mental balance. Otherwise how could he make such statements on behalf of the party? Mahato of the PCAPA was never a member of our party. Anybody from our party saying contrary has ulterior motives,” Bhattacharya told The Indian Express.

He, however, said Bikash Mahato, arrested by the police in Lalgarh, was a member of BJP. “Police have arrested our people and branding them as Maoists,” he added.