HashtagPolitics | Another BJP MLA in a spot over Northeast flood visit: Gets feet washed, says all about love

The video, shared by the opposition CPM, showed a woman washing Badharghat legislator Mimi Majumder's feet with soap and water and then drying them with a towel, after the MLA had completed an inspection of the locality.

Badharghat legislator Mimi Majumder (Photo: Twitter/@MimiMajumder1)

A day after an Assam BJP MLA drew social media outrage for taking a piggyback ride on a local journalist to a flood rescue boat in his constituency in Hojai, a Tripura MLA of the party found herself in a spot after a video emerged of a woman washing her feet, at her own flooded constituency in West Tripura on Friday.

Badharghat legislator Mimi Majumder, who was visiting the inundated locality of Suryapara, claimed the woman had washed her feet out of “love and affection”.

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The video, shared by the opposition CPM, showed a woman washing Majumder’s feet with soap and water and then drying them with a towel, after the MLA had completed an inspection of the locality.

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A former school headmistress, Majumder had joined the BJP a few days before she got a ticket for an Assembly bypoll in 2019.

Majumder told PTI: “The elderly woman washed my feet out of love and affection for an MLA. She did it with motherly care. It should not be seen as something negative. This shows how much respect a legislator could earn from the people by doing good work. In today’s world, no one can be forced to wash anyone’s feet or do anything like that.”

The CPM put up the video on its official Facebook page with the caption: “A woman had to wash the feet of MLA Mimi Majumder after a photo-shoot.”

Terming the incident “shocking”, Youth Congress president Rakhu Das said, “It shows the mindset of a ruling party MLA. They (the BJP) don’t have sympathy for people during difficult times. They are busy in photo-shoots for building public image.”

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Assam MLA Sibu Misra also defended the piggyback ride as the sign of his constituent’s affection for him. Speaking to The Indian Express, he said he was not well and the reporter whom he knew had offered to help. “I did not realise the media would make it such a big issue. I am a two-time MLA, they know me, know my work.”

Assam BJP MLA Sibu Misra can be seen on the back of a man, identified as a journalist from the area. (Photo: Videograb/ANI)

Assam and parts of the Northeast have been battered by rains, and floods for the past several days. In Assam, more than 6 lakh people across 27 districts have been displaced, while at least nine have died.