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Journalism of Courage
AFTER A brief absence from West Bengal politics following the BJP’s defeat in the Assembly polls last year, where he was one of the star campaigners, actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty is back in the picture with his surprise inclusion in the BJP’s core committee for the state.
On October 17, BJP national president J P Nadda announced the new 20-member core committee, with its West Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari heading the panel.
A BJP National Executive member, Chakraborty’s only political contribution lately has been claiming off and on about TMC MLAs who want to cross over being in touch with him – sometimes quoting a figure of about 21 and other times of around 38 MLAs. The promised desertions have not come about, and the TMC has been dismissive of both the actor and his statements.
However, the BJP, which lacks popular faces in West Bengal, and has seen many of them returning to the TMC since the Assembly election loss, seems to have put its faith in Chakraborty again ahead of next year’s panchayat polls.
“This will be a rural election. Chakraborty enjoys massive popularity among people living in villages. His catchy one-liners draw an instant reaction from his fans,” said a senior BJP leader.
The BJP is particularly hamstrung when it comes to reach within the “bhadralok” circles of West Bengal, despite making continuous attempts to woo them, since winning as many as 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. This is the reason it introduced columnist and Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta as well as Director of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation Anirban Ganguly into West Bengal politics, and tried ineffectually to rope in Bengal’s darling and former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly.
The TMC’s political message projecting the BJP as an “outsider”, unaware of Bengal’s ethos, is targeted at ensuring that this vote does not go to the BJP.
Chakraborty, a movie star of yore who enjoyed both commercial and critical success for his work in Bengali cinema and Bollywood, first dabbled with the Left Front and was seen as ideologically aligned with its politics. In April 2014, after the Left Front was voted out of power, he took the TMC’s nomination for Rajya Sabha membership. He resigned in 2016, citing health reasons, though sources in the TMC talked of differences of opinion between him and the party leadership.
In March 2021, Chakraborty had a grand entry into the BJP, at a public meeting of the party at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Many pointed out that Chakraborty’s shift to the BJP followed a series of cases against him by Central investigation agencies probing chit fund scams.
However, while Chakraborty turned out to campaign for BJP candidates in the Assembly polls, he failed to mobilise enough support for the party.
Party spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the panchayat polls will be a different story. Pointing out that the core committee was this time finalised by the central leadership, Bhattacharya said: “They must have thought well before making the selection.”
The TMC laughed off the BJP’s claims, while describing Chakraborty as a loose cannon. “At a time when the BJP is struggling with infighting, Mithun Chakraborty has come here to give the party some consolation. He no longer enjoys the support from people that was evident in last year’s Assembly polls. People are also aware that he betrayed our party,” TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said.
