The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has received a massive boost as yesteryear actress and Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan will campaign for them ahead of the third phase of the West Bengal elections.
Jaya Bachchan, who is a Bengali from Jabalpur, will campaign for TMC candidate and three-time MLA Aroop Biswas who will take on BJP MP Babul Supriyo for the Tollygunge seat. It is interesting to note that Tollygunge is the cinema district of Kolkata and Supriyo, who started his career as a singer, is aiming to gain the upper hand over Biswas. However, TMC has evened the playing field by bringing in the yesteryear actress.
Also, bringing in Jaya Bachchan will help West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee continue using the slogan – Bengal wants only its own daughter. Mamata is known to attack the BJP over bringing ‘outsiders’ to West Bengal. However, the BJP cannot accuse the West Bengal CM over the same in Bachchan’s case.
There is another significance of having Bachchan as a star campaigner for the TMC. Despite being a Samajwadi Party MP, the yesteryear actor’s presence helps Mamata’s plans in bringing together an alliance of non-BJP parties across India to take on the saffron party.
Several non-BJP parties have accused the saffron party of spreading hate, division and propaganda and destroying democracy in the country. Given the situation in West Bengal and across the country, the West Bengal Chief Minister wrote a letter to several opposition leaders seeking a united fight against the BJP.
Although BJP laughed off the letter, several central opposition party leaders have come out in Mamata's support. Likes of NCP’s Sharad Pawar, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, RJD’s Tejaswi Yadav and Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, among others, are in support of TMC supremo in her fight against the BJP. However, Congress has allied with the Left against BJP and TMC in the West Bengal election.
Mamata has been in a battle with the BJP since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014. The BJP has acquired several disgruntled TMC MPs and MLA before the 2021 elections. However, Mamata has said that she is not going down without a fight. Mamata has made her goals clear. Mamata said that after the West Bengal elections, she would contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his constituency in Varanasi.
Sixty out of 294 constituencies have gone to polls in the first two phases of the West Bengal assembly elections. The third round of polling will take place tomorrow. Though the Election Commission and the BJP have claimed that the polling has been peaceful, the TMC has alleged that violent clashes have taken place between members of the TMC and the BJP. The vote counting will begin on May 2.
