Kolkata, Dec 26 (IANS): Actor Mithun Chakraborty on Tuesday skipped a crucial meeting of the core committee of the BJP in West Bengal that was chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and attended by the party’s National President JP Nadda in Kolkata.

However, barring the star, the remaining 23 members of the core committee were there at the meeting to finalise the party’s strategy for West Bengal for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls for which the BJP has set a target of bagging 35 out of 42 seats.

Although questions are being raised in political circles of the state over Chakraborty’s absence from the meeting, state BJP leaders have denied any underlying reasons for it.

According to them Chakraborty has been in New Jersey for quite some time now and he went to the US much before the Union Home Minister’s visit to Kolkata was scheduled and the meeting of the core committee was fixed.

The leaders said that Chakraborty knows his responsibilities towards the party quite well and he will be seen actively participating in the campaigning programmes on behalf of the party once the process starts.

The star joined the BJP in March 2021, immediately before the West Bengal Assembly elections that year, at a mega rally of the BJP in Kolkata which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In 2022, JP Nadda formed the party’s core committee for West Bengal and included Chakraborty as the permanent member there.

Recently, the actor claimed that at least 38 Trinamool Congress legislators were constantly in touch with him with the intention to join the BJP.

“Not all in the Trinamool Congress are thieves and those who are honest in the ruling party are keen to join BJP,” the star had said.