Encouraged by her successful experiment in the Lok Sabha polls, Mamata Banerjee is again lining up a motley group of film stars, singers, artists and writers for nomination for the coming Assembly election.
From glamourous heroine Debashree Roy to the ageing actor Chiranjeet to thespian Ranjit Mullick, Tollywood will be represented in ample measure in the state Assembly this time.
The name of popular singer Anup Ghosal is also doing the rounds as a possible Trinamul Congress candidate. It was Ghosal who had rendered that soulful Gulzar song in Shekhar Kapoor's Masoom Tujhse naraz nahin zindagi hairan hoon main which remains as popular today as it was 30 years ago. Noted actor, playwright and director Bratya Basu is likely to be fielded from Dum Dum seat.
Way back in 2001 Assembly election, Ms Banerjee had unsuccessfully pitted film actor Madhabi Mukherjee against chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Jadavpur constituency. Ms Banerjee's love for glitterati, however, was not dampened. In the run up to the last Lok Sabha polls, she received huge support from an unexpected quarters: city intellectuals and artists. Bengal's culture clan had in the past always supported the CPI(M) and the Left Front.
The killing of 14 defenceless farmers in police firing in Nandigram in March 2007 and state government's forcible acquisition of land for Tatas in Singur, however, overnight changed the equation. A majority of writers, artists and members of film fraternity including Mahasweta Devi, Aparna Sen, Bratya Basu and Suvaprasanna came out on the streets denouncing the carnage. Prominent writers, artists, film stars and singers also joined hands and plastered the city with hoardings and posters. They mobilised vote for Trinamul Congress.
Ms Banerjee paid her gratitude by nominating a number of them. Two big names of Bengali film industry Tapas Paul and Shatabdi Roy were fielded from Krishnanagar in Nadia and Birbhum respectively. Both won by huge margins. Popular Bengali singer and song writer Kabir Suman was fielded from CPI(M) bastion Jadavpur.