<p id="0" class="story_para_0">Actor-turned-Trinamool Congress contestant Koushani Mukherjee courted controversy on Saturday as a video with her purported comment &ldquo;Please think before you cast votes, you have mother, sister at home&rdquo; went viral. Koushani, who had joined Trinamool Congress two months ago and is on the fray in the Krishnagar seat claimed that a part of her comment was taken out of context and put in the video by BJP&rsquo;s IT cell to give it a different meaning."</p> <p id="1" class="story_para_1">&ldquo;I had sought to project the fact that Bengal is the safest state for women, unlike BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh where women were raped in Hathras and their parents were shot at for protesting. The BJP IT cell edited the footage for cheap politics,&rdquo; she said in a statement.</p> <p id="3" class="story_para_3">Koushani also posted a video of what she claimed was her original comment on her Facebook page in which she is seen walking in her constituency canvassing for votes and telling voters &ldquo;Think twice before voting for BJP, you have your mother and sisters at home&rdquo;.</p> <p id="4" class="story_para_4">She is also seen saying &ldquo;In Didi&rsquo;s Bengal women are safe. Don&rsquo;t vote for BJP if you don&rsquo;t want Bengal to turn into another Hathras in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.&rdquo; Actor-turned BJP leader Rupa Bhattacharya hit out at Koushani in a post saying &ldquo;The utterances of the so-called actress turned politicians like you make our heads hang in shame.&rdquo;&lsquo;</p> <p id="5" class="story_para_5">&ldquo;An actress should have a refined taste &hellip; If you think that by making such an ugly comment you will endear yourself to Trinamool Congress workers, rest assured they will hate your hypocrisy from the bottom of their heart,&rdquo; Bhattacharya said.</p> <p id="6" class="story_para_6">Trinamool Congress minister Sashi Panja said part of Koushani&rsquo;s comments were kept in the edited video but not the entire footage.</p> <p class="story_para_6">&nbsp;</p> <p class="story_para_6">&nbsp;</p>

source https://news.abplive.com/news/india/actor-turned-tmc-leader-explains-after-her-mother-sister-remark-sparks-controversy-1451482