On Sunday, headlines out of poll-bound West Bengal were dominated by the news of actor Mithun Chakraborty joining the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the prime minister’s rally in Kolkata.
But when it comes to the celebrity quotient, the Trinamool Congress is not far behind.
On Friday, as Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee announced her party’s candidate list for the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, a television news channel broadcast images from the office of Bengali film director Raj Chakraborty, who sat watching the chief minister’s press conference with a few actors.
The film personalities were in a celebratory mood. All of them had joined TMC a week ago. All of them appeared in the party’s candidate list.
Banerjee had done it earlier and has done it again. Nominating film actors and so-called apolitical candidates is nothing new for the Trinamool chief. Every time Banerjee prepares a list of candidates, speculation begins on which film star will secure a…