Ahead of polls, crash course in rajneeti for Bengal’s celeb-turned politicians
The Trinamool Congress was the first off the blocks with its Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien advising some of the celebrities and stars who recently joined the party.
With the crucial assembly elections just three weeks away, Bengal’s celebrities and actors who have been joining the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in dozens over the past few months, are now under undergoing crash courses and are being mentored by party veterans to make them politically correct.
While the Trinamool Congress has already organised a class for some of the celebrities, mostly actors and directors, who joined the party in the past few weeks, the BJP is also planning to hold a similar session soon, a senior leader said.
“On Wednesday TMC’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’ Brien conducted a class of some of the celebrities and stars who recently joined the party. Such an orientation and mentoring is necessary because the transition from a social celebrity to a political celebrity needs to be smooth and in accordance with party lines,” said a TMC leader.
This becomes all the more necessary because the TMC is likely to field many of these new faces as its candidates.
A senior party leader said that while some old timers many not be given tickets this time because of age and poor public image, at least 40 new faces including Tollywood actors, directors, former bureaucrats and IPS officers may be contesting the polls on TMC tickets.
“The celebrities who have joined the BJP would be soon going through a mentoring and orientation class, which would be addressed by some senior party leader. It is like crash course on rajneeti,” said a senior BJP leader of West Bengal.
In the crash course, the new comers with no political background are made aware of the ‘common virus’ which is being misquoted and misrepresented and how to avoid them, how to avoid questions on controversial and unknown topics. What should be their body language, how to strengthen the party image and how to stick to party lines on any topic.
“Some of the young celebs often tend to use English words which may not be understood by the rural mass. They always need to keep in touch with the party and get to know what to say on a topic and what the party line is. They need to practice speaking in public. All these are told in the class,” the BJP leader said.
The assembly election in Bengal will be held in eight phases starting from March 27.
While TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is likely to announce the list of candidates for all 294 seats on Friday, the BJP is also expected to announce the names of at least 60 candidates who would be contesting in the first two phase of the polls on March 27 and April 1.