Singer Babul Supriyo who is the BJP’s candidate from the Asansol constituency in West Bengal has been accused of entering a temple in a state of inebriation. The complaint has been filed by the Asansol Citizens’ Forum. As expected the singer denies the charge stoutly. Says Supriyo, “I don’t even drink socially! Where is the question of visiting a temple in a drunken state? On 1 April I found a mysterious post made at 4.31 pm on my Facebook profile suggesting that I was drinking Vodka. I had left my mobile for charging in the car.” Supriyo says he responded “playfully” to that post that alleged he was drinking in the afternoon while he was supposed to be campaigning for the elections. “But even before I could respond people began to react because the entire world knows I am a complete teetotaler.” The singer suspects a political conspiracy to malign him. “Driven by the suspicion of political foul-play I didn’t delete the post. Knowing it was completely absurd to suggest I was drinking Vodka or whatever, I left the comment for people to comment.” Supriyo’s fears of a political conspiracy proved right when the following afternoon there was a police complaint against him. “I was informed that the Asansol police station(South) had received a complaint from the Asansol Citizens’ Forum , filed by one Mr Sanjay Singh from Damra village. The complaint accused me of entering a temple that evening in a drunken state.” Supriyo finds the accusation totally ridiculous as he claims to be a non-drinker. “Though I’ve nothing against drinking I don’t touch alcohol. It’s this kind of dirty politics that has brought a bad name to politicians in our country. It seems the opposition must be scared and are feeling the heat of the stupendous public response that I’ve enjoyed in Asansol during the last few days. I hope politics in our country would not enter the sacred portals of places of worship.” On 2 April the Chairman of the Asansol Municipal Corporation and Trinamool leader Jitendra Tiwary sent a letter to the Additional District Magistrate asking for a probe into this matter. Says Babul, “I am filing a defamation suit of Rs 2 crores against Mr Sanjay Singh and Mr Jitendra Tiwary for publicly maligning my image and hurting religious sentiments by accusing me of visiting a temple in a drunken state during campaigning. They are both obviously hand-in-glove in maligning me. If they’re so confident about their allegations they should’ve challenged me to undertake a blood-sample test on the night when the allegation was made. After more than 80 hours of the allegation they can’t prove anything. They just wanted to malign me.”