In tit for tat move, TMC goes to EC as wrestler Khali, a US citizen, campaigns for BJP candidate

The Trinamool Congress has written to the Election Commission of India (ECI) protesting against wrestler The Great Khali's citizenship status.

Khali has campaigned for BJP's Jadavpur MP candidate Anupam Hazra. In its complaint, the TMC said Khali is a US citizen.

"He (Khali) holds US citizenship; therefore, a foreigner shouldn't be allowed to influence the minds of Indian electors," reads a letter dated April 27.

'The Great Khali' on Friday turned up for the nomination filing of BJP candidate for Jadavpur constituency Anupam Hazra, drawing huge crowds that cheered him as he travelled in an open jeep.

"We are old friends," Hazra said about Khali, who said the BJP candidate was a like a "brother" to him.

"When he (Khali) came to know I am fighting elections, he said he will come... It is because of our bonding that he came. He has never been to any such event earlier," said Hazra, a professor at Vishvabharati University.

"I will come whenever and wherever he calls me," Khali said, as he urged people to vote for Hazra.

People came out in droves to see India's first world heavyweight wrestling champion in WWE, whose actual name is Dalip Singh Rana.

'The Great Khali', towering at seven feet and one inch, waved and smiled at the colourful procession that travelled along with him and Hazra from Ranikuthi to Alipore Survey Building, where the nomination was filed, covering a distance of almost six kilometers.

Hazra added that he had met Khali five-six years back in Delhi at an event, and they have been close friends since then.

"When he came to know that I am contesting the elections again, Khali said he will be in India for a week and will come to Kolkata to take part in my campaign," he told PTI.

Hazra also said the presence of Khali is not an attempt to "intimidate" the ruling Trinamool Congress, of which he was an MP from the Bolpur constituency.

He was expelled from the TMC for anti-party activities in January this year.

The BJP, which he joined three days after expulsion from the TMC, nominated him from the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency.

Hazra is up against Trinamool's filmstar candidate Mimi Chakraborty and CPI(M)'s Bikash Bhattacharya, a senior lawyer and a former Kolkata mayor.

Earlier this month, popular Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed was ordered to leave the country immediately and his business visa cancelled after he allegedly campaigned for West Bengal's ruling TMC that sparked a political row.

A video showing Ahmed and Bengali actors Ankush and Payal participating in a roadshow to seek votes for Kanhaiyalal Agarwal, the TMC candidate from Raiganj Lok Sabha seat, went viral on social media. The BJP then complained to the Election Commission and the Centre issued a 'Leave India' notice and cancelled the business visa given to the actor.

Ahmed has also been "blacklisted" by the Union Home Ministry, thus jeopardising the prospects of his future travel to India.