Former Union Minister and famous actor Shatrughan Sinha has been nominated by Mamata Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress as the Lok Sabha bypoll candidate from Asansol. Apart from this, TMC has made Babul Supriyo, who was a Union Minister in the Modi government, as its face for the by-election to the Ballygunge assembly seat.
Let us tell you that Babul Supriyo left the Bharatiya Janata Party and joined TMC in September last year. However, Shatrughan Sinha is yet to join TMC. Bypolls to Ballygunge and Asansol seats will be held on April 12. Babul Supriyo won elections in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections during his stay in the BJP.
Former state minister and party veteran Subrata Mukherjee was the MLA from Ballygunge assembly constituency in Kolkata, but the seat fell vacant after his death. The joining of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha in the TMC after national leaders like Yashwant Sinha, Sushmita Dev and Luizinho Faleiro is believed to be working as a plan for national expansion.
Apart from this, it is being said about giving ticket to Babul Supriyo from TMC that Supriyo has been a Union Minister in the Modi government. But he had to resign from his post last year during the cabinet expansion of the Modi government. In such a situation, Mamta Banerjee is seeing this as a big weapon against the Modi government for Babul Supriyo coming to TMC and his entry in the by-election.
Shatrughan Sinha had joined Congress from BJP. He contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket from Patna Sahib in Bihar but could not win. At the same time, Babul Supriyo has also been a former Union Minister and two-time BJP MP from Asansol. By making him the party’s candidate, Mamta Banerjee is trying to strengthen her party by gaining strength from BJP and Congress.
Since coming to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee has given more election tickets to members of the film and television industry. TMC has fielded Bengali actors, Tapas Paul, Shatabdi Roy and Debashree Roy, and Bollywood superstars Mithun Chakraborty to Bengali superstars Dev, Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan Tak.
In fact, the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency has a mixed population of coal mine workers, factory workers, scrap dealers and minority population. About 50 percent of the voters in this Lok Sabha constituency speak English language. In such a situation, TMC has given ticket to a candidate like Sinha. Talking about the Ballygunge assembly constituency, it has a large number of non-Bengali population. According to the image of playback singer Babul Supriyo, he is likely to get more support.
Looking at the activities of TMC in the last few months, the party is active in making a strong presence at the national level. Due to this plan, she is bringing prominent and senior leaders with her. The party’s intention is to create a strong opposition in both the houses of Parliament.