Locket Chatterjee, BJP's strong female voice in Bengal

BJP’s Locket Chatterjee is one of the few prominent female faces leading the party's battle in West Bengal in the ongoing Assembly elections.

The party has picked the actor-turned-politician and sitting Lok Sabha MP for Chunchura, an assembly constituency that falls under Hooghly, her Lok Sabha seat.

Once a leading Bengali actress with over 30 films under her belt, Chatterjee has been a vital addition to the saffron party, donning several hats for the side. She is currently one of the general secretaries of the party but has also been the president of the BJP state Mahila Morcha, leading many a protest and sit-in in the party’s offensive against CM Mamata Banerjee-led ruling Trinamool Congress.

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More recently, Chatterjee slammed the TMC supremo over her allegation that a conspiracy was hatched to attack her in Nandigram on March 10 by saying that Banerjee should apologize to the people there for making false claims.

“The plaster on the CM's left foot was replaced with bandage in just 24 hours, and that was something unusual," Chatterjee had said.

"She was subjected to many physical attacks in the past (in the 90s and early 2000) but we are of the view that she is trying to evoke sympathy by capitalising on this particular mishap. She wants to project herself as a woman who has survived another attack,” she added.

Interestingly, Chatterjee, a classical dancer trained in Bharatnatyam and Kathak, had started her political career with a brief association with the Trinamool Congress itself and had switched over to the BJP in 2015, a year before the 2016 West Bengal elections. In her political debut, however, the senior leader had faced a drubbing at the hands of TMC's Abhijit Roy from the Mayureshwar constituency.

Chatterjee made a comeback with the 2019 general elections and was elected to the 17th Lok Sabha from the Hoogly parliamentary constituency in West Bengal. She was up against TMC's two-term MP Ratna De Nag who held the seat. Chatterjee got 6,71,448 votes and defeated Nag by a margin of 73,362 votes.

She has also been member of the Standing Committee on Information Technology, Committee on Empowerment of Women and a Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Not bereft of controversies

In 2018, a case was registered against Chatterjee for allegedly participating in an armed Ram Navami procession in Birbhum district.

She also raised some eyebrows when she was seen threatening a polling officer at a booth in Belmuri in Hooghly seat during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In October 2020, Chatterjee was named in a suo motu FIR for rioting and violating the Epidemic Diseases Act after BJP workers fought pitched battles with the police on the streets of Kolkata and Howrah during the party's march to the state secretariat.

(With inputs from PTI)