Mamata's 'celeb brigade' triumphs in WB

Dismissed by the Left, the 'celebrity brigade' of Trinamool Congress — two popular filmstars and a singer-poet — emerged triumphant in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal pulling an upset in the Marxist bastion.        

Though the trend of cinestars turning to politics is quite common in other parts of the country, it is for the first time that West Bengal has sent two famous actors —Tapas Pal and Shatabdi Roy — to Parliament.        

When Trinamool Congress leader announced the candidatures of the "stars", the Left had described it as a sign of ideological bankruptcy, but it appaears that they have managed to strike a chord with the electorate.        

Fortynine-year-old Pal, a two-time legislator from Alipore in Kolkata, defeated his nearest CPI(M) rival and Asiad Gold Medal-winner athlete Jyotirmoyee Sikdar by over 77,000 votes in Krishnanagar constituency.        

Roy, a greenhorn in politics, won against CPI(M) candidate Braja Mukherjee in Birbhum Lok Sabha seat.       

In prestigious Jadavpur constituency, singer-songwriter Kabir Suman registered a dramatic victory, trouncing sitting CPI(M) MP Sujan Chakraborty by 56,706 votes. Sixty-year-old Suman is considered the architect of a new age in Bengali music. He shot to fame in the 1990s with his first album 'Tomake Chai' (I Want You) which became immensely popular among the youth with social issue-based lyrics.  

His work has been a major influence on the contemporary singers and on the development of band music in Bengal.       

Suman, who was born a Brahmin and converted to Islam to marry Bangladeshi singer Sabina Yasmin, had also worked as a broadcast journalist with Voice of America's Bengali service.       

Suman was earlier seen as an artiste with ultra-Leftist leanings, but become associated with Trinamool Congress during party chief Mamata Banerjee's movement against farmland acquisition for industry in the state.      

In West Bengal, the earlier instances of filmstars making foray into politics show that they had a mixed fortune. While Pal himself and Bengali actress Nayana Das won assembly elections on TC ticket in 2001, filmstar Madhavi Mukherjee lost against Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee from Jadavpur.      

In the past, actors Anup Kumar and Biplab Chatterjee lost assembly elections as CPI(M) candidates while Victor Banerjee was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections as a BJP nominee.