Bengal BJP losing celebrity factor with actors quitting amid differences - Hindustan Times
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Bengal BJP losing celebrity factor with actors quitting amid differences

Aug 20, 2021 11:25 PM IST

Two actors from Bengali television and cinema, Rupa Bhattacharjee and Anindya Banerjee, declared this week that they have severed ties with the BJP.

The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is running out of its celebrity faces with a host of actors, who joined the party prior to the March-April assembly polls, either lying low or quitting.

Image for representation. (ANI)
Image for representation. (ANI)

Two actors from Bengali television and cinema, Rupa Bhattacharjee and Anindya Banerjee, declared this week that they have severed ties with the BJP. Several other popular actors have distanced themselves from the BJP, party leaders said.

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The development comes weeks after the Bengal BJP’s most prominent celebrity, Bollywood singer-turned politician Babul Supriyo, who won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat twice and served as union minister of state, announced his decision to quit active politics.

Supriyo, who was dropped from the government during the cabinet reshuffle on July 7, said he would continue as an MP but would not attend any political event. He contested the Tollygunge assembly seat in Kolkata but was defeated by minister Aroop Biswas.

Before the elections, in which the BJP secured only 77 of the state’s 294 assembly seats, more than a dozen television and cinema actors with no political background joined the saffron camp.

Of them, Bhattacharjee and Banerjee took part in numerous debates and talk shows on popular news channels and batted for the BJP. Both were inducted in the presence of state president Dilip Ghosh but were not fielded in the polls. Bhattacharjee said she joined in 2019 with the hope that the BJP might usher in a change although she believed in Marxist ideology since childhood.

The two actors faced criticism on August 16 for attending a programme that marked the completion of 500 days of a crowd-funded public canteen that Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers run at Jadavpur in south Kolkata.

Reacting to this, Ghosh said, “Who is Rupa? Who is Anindya? I cannot remember them. I don’t remember inducting them. So many people joined us. Probably they came with the crowds. Celebrities do not struggle on the field. They only add to the party’s beauty.”

Alleging that factionalism in the Bengal BJP is a dominant factor, Bhattacharjee wrote an open letter to Ghosh on her Facebook page on August 18 and said she faced this because she was inspired by Mukul Roy to join.

Roy, who was a national vice-president, returned to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on June 11.

“I support each and every social welfare activity that helps. I don't see who is running it. I am not part of any party anymore. If you cannot respect artists, at least respect your party workers,” Bhattacharjee wrote in her letter to Ghosh. She also told the media that she does not believe in radical Hinduism.

Anindya Banerjee did not criticize any leader but said he was not in the BJP anymore although he did not submit a formal resignation letter.

A top Bengal BJP leader said several popular cinema actors such as Srabanti Chatterjee, Payel Sarkar, Tanushree Chakraborty and Yash Dasgupta, all of whom unsuccessfully contested the polls, have not been seen at any BJP programme in recent months.

“Those who invited actors at random should explain why they are leaving us now,” said the leader who did not wish to be named.

Fielding actors in the polls became a bone of contention in the BJP in May when senior leader and former Tripura governor Tathagata Roy accused Ghosh and national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya of selecting unfit candidates.

In his tweets, Roy called some female actors “politically stupid.” This led to a row.

The TMC also fielded some people who had no political experience. Of them, actor Saayoni Ghosh, who lost the contest from West Burdwan district, was later made president of the party’s youth wing.

ends

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