The BJP failed to make inroads in the West Bengal Motion Picture Artists' Forum elections as actors considered close to the Trinamool Congress and the Left Front emerged winners to various posts on Monday.
The Trinamaool Congress welcomed the results, while the BJP said the results have proved the "unholy nexus of Left Front and the TMC".
According to the results announced on Monday, actors Anjana Basu, Anindya Pulak Banerjee, Sourav Chakravorty, Rupa Bhattacharya and Kaushik Chakraborty - who joined to BJP after the Lok Sabha polls - lost in the hustings.
Actor Soham Chakraborty, June Maliah, Sonali Chaudhury who are close to the TMC won the elections.
While Soham got elected as vice president along with Jeet and Paran Bandyopadhyay, Arindam Ganguly and Sankar Chakraborty, not known to be part of any camp, were elected as general secretary and working president of the organisation, founded in 1998, respectively.
Similarly known apolitical faces like Saptarshi Roy and Santilal Mukherjee were elected as joint secretaries, while Debdut Ghosh, known as a Left sympathizer and Rana Mitra became assistant secretaries.
Among others Tapas Chakraborty and Soham Bandyopadhyay were elected as treasurer and assistant treasurer respectively, while Kushal Chakraborty, Sonali Chaudhury, June Maliah, Sagnik Chatterjee and Diganta Bagchi were elected to the five-member executive council.
"The elections showed that actors of Tollygunge industry have never been influenced by political identity of the contenders. The forum had never belonged to any political camp, nor will it be so in future," Kushal Chakraborty, one of the five elected executive council member, told PTI.
Actor Suman Bandyopadhyay, known to be close to BJP, also said "Artists Forum had always sought to keep the organisation out of the purview of politics. And the election showed members of the industry shared the same perception."
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