BJP loss: Tathagata sparks star candidate debate

Kolkata: Former Meghalaya governor and BJP leader Tathagata Roy’s tweet slamming the BJP’s election management team for giving tickets to “film and TV actors who never had anything to do with politics” has created a storm in the industry. Taking the names of Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh and BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, Roy has questioned what “great qualifications” his party’s Bengal election management team saw in these stars to hand over the tickets to them while ignoring old party workers.While some have seen the comment as apparently sexist, other celeb BJP workers feel that Roy is well within his rights to ask this rational question.
Currently recovering from Covid-19 in home isolation, Roy called several actor-turned-BJP candidates such as Parno Mitra, Srabanti Chatterjee and Paayel Sarkar “politically stupid” after they lost from Baranagar, Behala West and Behala East constituencies, respectively.
Tanusree Chakraborty, Paayel Sarkar and Srabanti Chatterjee
In another tweet, he said, “It must not be forgotten that a BJP electoral ticket carries with it substantial money for running the election. Or for other purposes!” In a later post in the same thread, however, he pointed out an “error” in one of his tweets and regretted it: “Tanusree Chakraborty, NOT Parno Mitra, shot selfies with Madan Mitra. The error is regretted.”
Roy said all the original BJP workers, who had built this party from the 80s, have been ignored and rubbished. “Only Rahul Sinha and Samik Bhattacharjee have been taken as consolation prizes. But they have no role in making policies. The entire business was run by the Hindi-speaking triumvirate of Kailash, Shiv Prakash and Arvind Menon. In addition, there was Dilip Ghosh. One can still understand ignoring old-timers. That is stupidity. But the other aspect of nominating glam girls without the slightest idea about politics has raised eyebrows,” he said.
Addressing the celebs as ‘nogorir noti’, Roy said, “There has to be some quality in a person to be a candidate of a national party like the BJP in an assembly election. It may be long association with the party, a certain standing in society or their reputation of serving people. It can’t just be about being in showbiz and making money.” On being asked why he has come down heavily against heroines and the not heroes who contested, he said, “They are male stars. Their glamour is less. Female stars have a different kind of appeal that raises eyebrows. I have posed the question wanting to know their specific qualifications. Dilip Ghosh is the BJP state president and Kailash Vijayvargiya is the head honcho of the entire election management team. They need to answer the question.”
Rupa Bhattacharjee
Mittra told TOI, “I will definitely not support any comment maligning or disrespecting any woman. I can’t comment on why a ticket was given to me. That is for the party to decide and answer.” Sarkar tweeted, saying: “I know I had nothing to do with politics before but no one is born a politician, even you. It’s a passion that we follow. @BJP4Bengal @BJP4India had put their trust in me & I did whatever in my capability to not let the people of Behala (East) down. The results might not be in our favour but we did put in hard work under the guidance of @narendramodi ji,@KailashOnline ji, @SuvenduWB da,@AmitShah ji, @DilipGhoshBJP da. This might look stupid to you sir but these tweets from ur verified twitter profile purely shows class. Lastly @tathagata2 sir, I had congratulated the winning party and mentioned that I will continue this journey that I have started. That’s what I do and that’s how passionate we actors are. Expecting your able guidance and support in this process as your are a veteran here.” Chatterjee have reacted to the media saying a senior leader like Roy shouldn’t level accusations without any proof.
Actor Rupa Bhattacharjee, who joined BJP in 2019 along with Mittra, said, “Targeting female stars is sexist. But I can’t ignore the soft corner some of our decision makers had for those celeb candidates who danced to ‘khela hobe’ with a rival party candidate. I am surprised that they were never hauled up by BJP’s decision makers. It’s only fair that within the party, questions are now being raised about political contributions made by all celebrity candidates.”
Kanchana Moitra
Actor Kanchana Moitra, who also joined BJP along with them, protested “this trend of nominating celebs whose political integrity is questionable”. “I might not support Tathagata Roy’s use of language like ‘noti’ but he is well within his rights to ask this question.” Celebs airdropped to the party were chosen as candidates. They irresponsibly danced with a rival party candidate without thinking how it would hurt the sentiments of the party workers. Why were they nominated? This is a question many people within the party and outside are asking,” Moitra said.