Express News Service
KOLKATA: Taking a cue from the trend in West Bengal’s electoral practice set by Trinamool Congress a decade ago, BJP has also stated strengthening its team of silver-screen figures. On Wednesday, the party inducted seven Bengali film and serial actors, claiming that they are making inroads into Bengal’s culture and entertainment circle.
BJP sources said that the move is aimed at countering TMC’s strategy, which proved successful in previous elections. TMC started this at the 2011 Assembly elections, when popular actress Debasree Roy defeated CPI(M) heavyweight Kanti Ganguly.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, as many five actors – Moon Moon Sen, Dipak Adhikari (Dev), Sandhya Roy, Shatabdi Roy, Tapas Pal – emerged winners. In the 2019 general elections, TMC found MPs in Mimi Chakrabarty and Nusrat Jahan.
BJP had also roped in figures like Locket Chatterjee in the past before getting Rudranil Sengupta recently. As a continuation of that, the party welcomed Yash Dasgupta and six others on Wednesday. Dasgupta is known to be a close friend of TMC MP Nusrat.
“We will pay TMC back in their own coin in the upcoming election. In some of the seats, TMC was also surprised after actors defeated heavyweight contestants. We are also going to field actors in the upcoming elections,” said a BJP leader, unwilling to be identified.
Front’s demand leaves Left-Congress alliance in a fix
The seat sharing deal between the Left-Congress alliance and Indian Secular Front appeared to be in deep water as the Front, launched by Islamic cleric Abbas Siddiqui, demanded 45 seats. The alliance agreed to giving them 25. A Left leader described the Front’s demand as unrealistic.
