Bollywood stars add colour to West Bengal byelections

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, April 4

Bollywood has added colour to the April 12 bypolls in West Bengal to fill up one vacancy each in the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly.

Yesteryear stars Shatrughan Sinha and Mithun Chakraborty have co-starred in a number of movies (Hiraasat, Aandhi Toofan, Taqdeer, Hawalaat, etc.) where they jointly pummeled the villain in the climax.

But the two heroes have found themselves in opposite camps in the bypoll for Asansol Lok Sabha constituency. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate for the seat is Shatrughan, while BJP, the main opposition party in the state, is trying to impress voters by using the star appeal of Mithun Chakraborty.

Chakraborty, who is recuperating from a cataract surgery, has released a video, asking voters to back the BJP candidate from Asansol, Agnimitra Paul.

Stating that Agnimitra and he are like brother and sister, Chakraborty says in the video that not a single day passes when the BJP candidate does not call his wife to enquire about his health. “Imagine, how well she will take care of you if you send her to Parliament”, Chakraborty says.

“Agni is your local girl, she is your daughter, your sister”, Mithun says, in a bid to highlight that Shatrughan Sinha is an outsider. He, however, does not mention the BJP and TMC candidates by name. Sinha, nevertheless, reacted sharply to the video and said he was not aware that Chakraborty had continued dabbling in politics.

Asansol Lok Sabha constituency had link with Bollywood earlier also as popular Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo represented the constituency in 2014 and 2019, respectively. In 2019, Supriyo, contesting on a BJP ticket, defeated TMC’s Moonmoon Sen, a Bollywood heroine.

Supriyo, whose resignation from the Lok Sabha necessitated the bypoll in Asansol, is contesting from Ballygunge Assembly constituency as TMC candidate. Candidate of the ruling party normally enjoys an advantage over the rivals in an Assembly bypoll. However, for Supriya, it is going to be no cakewalk in Ballygunge.

Comments allegedly made by Supriyo during his previous avatar as a BJP MP have returned to haunt him as an influential section of Muslim clerics have expressed their dissatisfaction over his candidature.

Importantly, CPI(M) and Congress have both fielded Muslim candidates from the seat. CPI(M) candidate  Saira Shah Halim is niece of acclaimed actor Naseeruddin Shah. Naseer’s wife Ratna Shah has released a video asking people to vote for Halim.

BJP candidate from Ballygunge is Keya Ghosh.

The results will be announced on April 16.