JOIN USTMC’s celebrity candidates face tall task in Bengal polls
The Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) celebrity candidates are faced with an uphill task in the Assembly elections as, barring a few exceptions, most of them have been fielded in seats where BJP either got lead in the last Lok Sabha elections or gained significant organizational clout.
Out of the 14 celebrity candidates fielded by the TMC, only three have previous experience of contesting in elections, including MLAs Chiranjeet Chakraborty and singer Indranil Sen, and actor Soham Chakraborty who had contested elections earlier.
With one exception, all the TMC celebrity candidates have been fielded from seats which the party won in the 2016 Assembly elections. However, the political scenario in Bengal has changed a lot since BJP’s rise in the state in the last Lok Sabha elections.
For instance noted film director Raj Chakraborty who has been fielded from the Barrackpore Assembly constituency, has to face the organizational clout of BJP MP Arjun Singh. Moreover, the incumbent TMC MLA from the seat Silbhadra Dutta has joined the BJP. Chakraborty will also have to deal with the discontent of local TMC workers who have dubbed him as an “outsider”.
“I will reach out to the people of the constituency and will try to work taking everybody along,” said Chakraborty.
Actor Saayoni Ghosh has been fielded from the asansol South constituency. This could be challenging for her as BJP MP Babul Supriyo achieved an emphatic victory in the related Asansol Lok Sabha seat in the last Parliamentary elections.
As for actor June Malia, she has been fielded from the Mednipur Assembly seat. Even though the TMC won that seat in the 2016 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has made rapid inroads in the area. BJP State President Dilip Ghosh defeated TMC’s Manash Ranjan Bhunia from the Medinipur Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
Actor Sayantika Banerjee has been fielded from Bankura Assembly seat. In the corresponding Bankura Lok Sabha seat, senior TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee was defeated by BJP’s Subhash Sarkar in 2019.
Only actor Koushani Mukherjee (Krishnanagar North Assembly seat) and Lovely Maitra (Sinarpur South) have been fielded in comparatively easy seats.