Lok Sabha polls: As stars take on stars in Bengal, how did celebs do as MPs?

Over the past decade or so, celebrities have become an integral part of West Bengal politics. While the Bengali intelligentsia, including directors and actors, were once famously known for their Leftist leanings, few were directly a part of the Left regime that ruled the state for 34 years.

However, ever since the Trinamool Congress has come to power in the state, literally sweeping the Left out of the picture, popular actors have become common faces in the elections, be it the Lok Sabha or the Assembly, though not all the faces are very frequently seen in the Parliament or Assembly.

The BJP has also taken a leaf out of the TMC’s book and fielded celebrity candidates, and not all have disappointed. This Lok Sabha elections, as many as three seats in Bengal will see direct contests between celebrity candidates, while in some others, celebs MPs will look to retain their crowns.

So, here’s an account of the celebrity candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal and a brief report card of the performance of the sitting MPs.

STARRY, STARRY FIGHTS

1. Dev (TMC) Vs Hiran (BJP) in Ghatal, May 25

The people of Ghatal have been in for the fireworks this poll season, with two of the biggest stars of the Bengali popular film industry coming head-to-head over the Lok Sabha seat. While Dev alias Dipak Adhikari is the two-term sitting TMC MP from this seat, taking him on is Hiran, aka Hiranmoy Chatterjee, currently the BJP MLA of Kharagpur as well as a councillor in Kharagpur Municipality.

Dev, undoubtedly the bigger star of the two, was first elected the MP of Ghatal in 2014, a feat he repeated in 2019. While he won with more than 50 per cent votes in 2014, his vote share slid a bit to 48 per cent in 2019.

The Paglu star, who also owns a production house, had in February resigned from three government-nominated positions and hinted that he would not contest the polls, but later changed his mind after a meeting with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee. It was hardly surprising given Dev’s immense star power that, Didi knows fully well, has been coming in handy to keep the BJP at bay.

When it comes to the Parliament, though, Dev does not have an impressive report card to show. He had barely 12 per cent attendance, the lowest among all celebrity MPs, according to an IndiaSpend report. The busy star, who has two to three releases even year, participated in only two debates in five years though he fared better in terms of asking questions, raising 106 of them, says the IndiaSpend report.

One of the major issues Dev has been working on is the “Ghatal Master Plan”. The constituency, which covers mostly West Midnapore district and one Assembly constituency in East Midnapore, is infamously flood-prone. Located around 120 km from Kolkata, Ghatal lies in the lower reaches of Chota Nagpur plateau’s catchment area of the Shilabati river and is hit by floods every year.

To his credit, Dev has consistently sought updates on the budget and implementation of the Ghatal Master Plan, which is basically a large-scale flood management programme. Besides that, he hasn’t done much. Even though he used only Rs 44.5 lakh of the Rs 9.8 crore allocated to him — to light up public spaces, all of it in 2024 — he urged the Centre to increase the MPLAD funds.

He did better in the 2014-2019 term, though, spending 96.7 per cent of his MPLAD funds, according to an IndiaSpend report.

Hiran, on the other hand, scored a surprise 3771-vote victory over TMC’s Pradip Sarkar from the Kharagpur Sadar constituency in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election. The Bhalobasa Bhalobasa star was also elected as a councillor for Ward 33 of Kharagpur Municipality in 2022.

Apart from implementing the Ghatal Master Plan, Hiran has promised two other things to Ghatal: improved railway service, and turning the constituency into a “gold hub”.

Dev, however, has managed to draw the attention of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, too, about the flood management programme. In February, she announced that her government would implement the Ghatal Master Plan — requiring a budget of Rs 1,250 crore — without the Centre’s help.

2. Locket Chatterjee (BJP) Vs Rachna Banerjee (TMC) in Hooghly, May 20

Locket Chatterjee, a veteran actress in Bengali films, is now an all-India face, thanks to her proactive presence in Bengal politics as part of the BJP. She entered state politics with the TMC and was a member of the state Women’s Commission from 2014 to 2015, when she severed ties with the TMC and joined the BJP.

She contested the 2016 Assembly elections from Mayureshwar, but lost to TMC’s Abhijit Roy. In 2017, she replaced Roopa Ganguly as the state president of the BJP Mahila Morcha. In 2019, she defeated two-term TMC MP from Hooghly, Ratna De Nag, but lost the 2021 Assembly election from Chuchura to TMC’s Asit Mazumdar.

Chatterjee if often in the news for her heated allegations against the ruling TMC, and she performed fairly in the Parliament as well. According to the IndiaSpend report, she had 88 per cent attendance in Parliament, participated in 43 debates, and asked 295 questions.

Rachna Banerjee, on the other hand, is a political greenhorn, joining the TMC only this year and getting an election ticket too. She been not only been active in Bengali films for more than 30 years, she has acted in Odia, Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada films, too, barring one Hindi film. In recent years, she has gained immense popularity as the host of the television reality show Didi No 1, which she has been anchoring since 2011, likely the reason Mamata Banerjee has pitted her against Chatterjee.

It would be interesting to see who becomes Didi No 1 in Hooghly!

3. Agnimitra Paul (BJP) Vs June Malia (TMC) in Medinipur, May 25

This will be an interesting battle because both Paul, who is a fashion designer, and Malia, who is an actress, are sitting MLAs of West Bengal — Paul from Asansol Dakshin and Malia from the Medinipur Assembly constituency.

Paul joined the BJP in 2019 and briefly became the state BJP’s Mahila Morcha chief in 2020. She defeated TMC’s Saayoni Ghosh in the 2021 Assembly polls from Asansol Dakshin by more than 4,000 votes.

Malia, another veteran of the Bengali screen, defeated the BJP’s Shamit Dash by more than 24,000 votes to become the MLA from Medinipur in 2021.

The INDIA candidate from this constituency is the CPI’s Biplab Bhatta. The sitting MP of the Medinipur constituency is former state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh.

VETERAN CELEB MPs WHO WILL FIGHT TO KEEP THEIR SEATS

1. Satabdi Roy (TMC), Birbhum (poll on May 13)

Veteran actress Satabdi Roy, TMC’s three-time MP from Birbhum, will be looking at a fourth term this election. Once a regular face in acclaimed Bengali films, Roy won the seat by 61,519 votes, 67,263 votes, and 88,917 votes over her nearest rivals in 2009, 2014, and 2019 respectively.

The reigning queen of Birbhum has given mixed performances in the Parliament. She has reportedly utilised only Rs 65.8 lakh of the total allocated Rs 7.35 crore MPLAD funds on road construction and improvement of health and education infrastructure — all done in 2024, says the IndiaSpend report.

Like Dev, Roy also used her MPLAD funds better in the 2014-2019 sessions, at 95.6 per cent. She had a 77 per cent attendance in Parliament, participated in 24 debates, but asked only one question in Parliament.

Roy will face former Congress MLA Milton Rashid and Debashish Dhar of the BJP in the contest this time. It will be interesting to watch if she can keep her crown this time.

2. Shatrughan Sinha (TMC), Asansol (poll on May 13)

Veteran actor and politician Shatrughan Sinha has been a Union minister briefly. While he was with the BJP from 1980, he switched allegiance to the Congress in 2019 and then quickly to the TMC in 2022. He won the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat twice, in 2009 and 2014, and then the Asansol bypoll after singer Babul Supriyo vacated the seat he had won as the BJP candidate.

Sinha had around 63 per cent attendance in Parliament, during which he did not participate in a single debate and asked zero questions, says the IndiaSpend report. He is yet to spend a single rupee from his Rs 7.35-crore MPLAD funds, says a Print report. Despite being sanctioned, none of the recommended projects have been reportedly completed.

Sinha faces veteran BJP politician SS Alhuwalia, the incumbent MP from Bardhaman-Durgapur and former MP from Darjeeling. He has been a Rajya Sabha MP too and a central minister.