Actor turned politician Shatrughan Sinha has sparked a controversy by going against his party, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul, by supporting a national Uniform Civil Code and a nationwide ban on non-vegetarian food including beef.

“Implementation of UCC in Uttarakhand is prima facie commendable,” Sinha, known as Shotgun to fans, told reporters in Delhi on Tuesday.

“UCC must be there in the country and I am sure everyone will agree with me. But there are many fine prints and loopholes in this... Not just beef, but non-veg food in general, must be banned in the country... But the rules which can be imposed in North India cannot be imposed in the Northeastern states... An all-party meeting must be held prior to drafting UCC provisions,” the Trinamul Lok Sabha member from Asansol in Bengal added.

The BJP government in Uttarakhand implemented a uniform civil code on January 27, becoming the first Indian state to do so. The Gujarat government also formed a five-member panel Monday, headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Desai, to draft a bill on similar code.

Implementation of a national uniform civil code has been a pet project of the BJP, although it seems the party is now going for a state-wise implementation which critics say flies against the claim of it being uniform across the country.

Sinha’s comments go against what his party chief, Mamata Banerjee, has said.

The Bengal chief minister was strident in her opposition to the uniform civil code during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign.

During a public meeting during Eid in April last year, she had said she would not allow a uniform civil code in Bengal till she was alive. She was “ready to shed blood” to fight such a code, she had said.

On April 29, 2024, she said, “Whenever there are elections, they use one issue or the other to flare up communal tensions. This time they are talking about the UCC and propagating that it is against a particular community. But this UCC is nothing but political rhetoric, and Hindus in no way will benefit from it.”

At another campaign rally, Banerjee had said: “Why should they be telling us what to eat? Have we said you cannot eat dhokla, idli, dosa or any delicacy of other states? I have heard they are shutting down shops in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh…One man, one party, will decide what you eat, what you will wear and how you will conduct yourself.”

At a rally in Kolkata, she had said: “Modi says, stop eating fish, meat and eggs. Why do you have to eat fish? What should we eat then? Mushrooms? Or barley? I promise, I will cook by myself, not get it done by somebody else.”

She also said people should decide what they want to eat.

“People will eat what they want. Those who love vegetarian food will eat that. Non-vegetarian lovers will eat non-vegetarian food.”

Sinha, who was a BJP MP from Patna Sahib, Bihar, quit the party and joined the Trinamul in 2022. Two years later, the Trinamul wrested the Asansol Lok Sabha seat from the BJP after 10 years and won it for the first time after the party fielded the veteran Bihari actor from the seat.

Asansol has a huge number of Hindi-speaking voters, many of whom had originally come there from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh to work in the coal mines.