Earlier this week, the West Bengal unit of the BJP announced its core committee members and the actor-turned-politician was included in the list.
Earlier this week, the West Bengal unit of the BJP announced its core committee members and the actor-turned-politician was included in the list.
After huge hopes of wooing ‘Dada’ (Sourav Ganguly) of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal unit failed and proved to be a tough catch, the party has turned to “Gemini”. Slave’ (Mithun Chakraborty) and rested his hopes on the veteran actor to attract the voters of Bengal.
Earlier this week, the West Bengal unit of the BJP announced its core committee members and the actor-turned-politician was included in the list. Among the 20 members of the core committee, 72-year-old Chakraborty is the only person who did not contest the assembly elections but has star appeal and is known across the state.
The list includes the names of state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari, several party MPs and MLAs from the state and Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta. BJP sources said the committee’s list was confirmed by party president JP Nadda and it is an indication of more political responsibility being handed over to the actor.
Mr Chakraborty had joined the BJP in March 2021 during a rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground after resigning as a Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP in 2016. However, he remained in the good books of Trinamool. In 2017, Ms. Banerjee honored Mr. Chakraborty with the ‘Mahanayak Samman’ (honour of great matinee icon Uttam Kumar by the Government of West Bengal). When the investigation into chit fund scams in the state was at its peak, Mr Chakraborty was also questioned by central investigative agencies as he promoted these companies in “the capacity of a star actor”. Earlier, Mr. Chakraborty was also close to the Left parties when the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front was in power.
Mr. Chakraborty became a hit in the BJP from the day he joined the party. dialogues from his Bengali films,” Marbo Ikhane, Lash Porbe Shoshanne (I will kill you here and the body will land directly in the crematorium)” and “A Mi ekta cobra, a chobol-ae chobI (I am a cobra who can kill you in one stroke)” made him a very popular campaigner across the state during the 2021 assembly elections. A police complaint was also filed against him for the remarks but proceedings against him were quashed by the Calcutta High Court)
Mr Chakraborty’s inclusion in the core committee comes at a time when the party is gearing up for panchayat elections to be held in early 2023. After the defeat of the 2021 assembly, the BJP has lost all the by-elections. Mr Chakraborty is the only star who has not returned to the Trinamool and remains with the BJP at a time when several celebrities from the Bengali film industry have tried to mend fences with the state’s ruling system.
In fact, some in the BJP feel that Mr. Chakraborty can match the skills of Mukul Roy, who rejoined the Trinamool a month after winning the assembly elections on a BJP ticket. After the 2021 elections, Mr Chakraborty has addressed only a few press conferences at the BJP party office. In these conversations, his remark that he is in touch with dozens of MLAs from the ruling camp, who will soon join the BJP, created an uproar.
Mr Roy, who played a key role in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when the BJP increased its Lok Sabha tally from two seats to 18, is considered a man with key “organizational skills”. Mr. Chakraborty is extremely popular in the state and can help his party bring people to its political programs.
However, the message of the BJP leadership is that the actors will play an important role in the organization of the party in the state. Mr Chakraborty is expected to visit the state frequently, attend core committee meetings and participate in political events. As the 2024 Lok Sabha election is just 18 months away, the BJP is counting on its sole ‘star’ to maintain the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and help it improve its performance.