Bappi Lahiri to contest in Lok Sabha election

Days after the Trinamool Congress pulled a coup of sorts by nominating actor Mithun Chakraborty as its the Rajya Sabha nominee, the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to field music composer Bappi Lahiri as one of its candidates from the state.

Lahiri, who joined the BJP on Friday, said after coming out of a brief meeting with the party’s national president, Rajnath Singh, that he had for long wanted to join the saffron party as he believes in its ideals and feels it can provide a stable government to the country.

BJP state president Rahul Sinha said the party had approached Lahiri and he would contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from a constituency in Bengal.
“There will be good response in the state. Film star Mithun Chakraborty has recently joined another party. Lahiri is an eminent personality. We’ve suggested a couple of seats for him,” said Rahul  Sinha.

While Sinha refused to reveal the names of the seats suggested for Lahiri, he said the BJP state unit is eager for him to contest the general elections, and that they are confident of positive response from the electorate.

‘A partyman’

When asked about contesting, Lahiri told a news channel, “I will do whatever the party feels is right.”

State leaders of the BJP, which is likely to contest all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, said there could be more surprises in store in terms of candidates. The party had earlier approached former Indian cricket team skipper Sourav Ganguly to become sports minister in case of an NDA win.