A video of Uttar Pradesh Police personnel participating in the Baba Lat Bhairav procession in Varanasi has drawn sharp, sardonic commentary from TMC MP Mahua Moitra, who compared the scene to a Bollywood item number — and then clarified, pointedly, that it was just the state police 'enjoying' a religious procession in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency.

Moitra posted on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, tagging both @Uppolice and @narendramodi: 'At first I thought this was an item number I missed from the film Omkara. Then I realised it is just @Uppolice enjoying Baba Lat Bhairav procession in @narendramodi's Varanasi.' The reference to Omkara — the 2006 Vishal Bhardwaj crime drama set in the badlands of Uttar Pradesh — was unmistakably loaded. The film is synonymous with UP's rough political underbelly. The implication was clear without being stated.

UP Police and the Baba Lat Bhairav procession

The Baba Lat Bhairav procession is a religious event in Varanasi associated with a fierce form of Lord Shiva. Varanasi, one of India's oldest living cities and Modi's Lok Sabha constituency since 2014, routinely hosts large-scale religious processions that draw significant crowds and require heavy police presence. What triggered Moitra's post appears to be the manner of police participation — not crowd management, but something that read, to her eye, as active revelry.

Uttar Pradesh Police has not issued any official clarification on the video or the nature of its personnel's involvement in the procession as of the time of posting.

A familiar opposition playbook — and why Varanasi is always the stage

This is not the first time an opposition MP has used a visual from Varanasi to make a broader point about governance in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh. For opposition parties, Modi's constituency is the ultimate symbol — a city where the Prime Minister's political identity and the state's law-and-order record intersect most visibly. A clip of police conduct there carries far more rhetorical weight than the same clip from any other city in the state.

Moitra, known for her combative parliamentary style and her willingness to use social media as a pressure tool, has a long record of flagging what she frames as institutional lapses in BJP-governed states. The Omkara reference sharpens the jab: it invokes not just UP's cinematic reputation but a specific aesthetic of chaos and impunity that the film immortalised.

Whether UP Police responds — officially or through the state government — will determine whether this stays a social media moment or becomes a parliamentary talking point when the next session convenes.