NEW DELHI, March 13: Formally announcing his joining the party, the Trinamool Congress has set up the Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha, famously known as “Shot Gun,” as its candidate for contesting the Lok Sabha by-election from Asansol in West Bengal.
Sinha’s joining the TMC was very much in the air for some time but that he has actually joined the party became clear on Sunday only when the party chairperson and the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced his candidature for the by-election caused by the resignation of another cine star and famous playback singer Babul Supriyo, who resigned both from the Lok Sabha and the BJP in September, last year.
Supriyo, who at one stage had announced his decision to quit active politics after he was unceremoniously dropped from his cabinet by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, joined the TMC soon afterwards. He too was not disappointed and was named as the party’s candidate to contest the Ballygunje state Assembly by-election in Kolkata city. The seat has fallen vacant due to the death of the senior TMC leader and former minister Subroto Mukherjee in November, last year.
“Happy to announce on behalf of the All India Trinamool Congress that Sri Shatrughan Sinha, famed actor, will be our candidate in Loksabha bye-election from Asansol,” Banerjee tweeted. “Sri Babul Supriyo, former union minister and noted singer, will be our candidate in Vidhansabha bye-election from Ballygunje. Jai Hind, Jai Bangla, Jai Ma- Mati- Manush!” Banerjee added.
The election commission had announced the By-elections for the Asansol Lok Sabha and Ballygunje Assembly seats on Saturday to be held on April 12 and the results will be declared on April 16. With the announcement, the TMC leadership has given an opportunity to Supriyo to get elected to the State Assembly.
Actor-turned-politician Sinha joined the Congress from the BJP ahead of the 2019 parliamentary elections and had contested the elections from Patna Sahib, the seat he had held earlier as the BJP nominee, but this time lost to BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad. There were speculations about him joining the TMC since 2021 when the party retained power in West Bengal for the third consecutive time. The announcement of his candidature marks his official association with the TMC.
Asansol is a constituency bordering Jharkhand in West Bengal and has a significant “non-Bengali” population. The BJP had won it in 2014 and 2019 and the decision to field popular actor from the seat has been taken considering the electorate of the constituency.
Yashwant Sinha, former Union Finance Minister had joined the TMC in March 2021 and has been appointed as national vice-president of the party. In its attempts to establish its footprints outside West Bengal the TMC has given Rajya Sabha berths to Sushmita Deb and Luizinho Faleiro, both former Congress members.
(Manas Dasgupta)
