Over the years, West Bengal has witnessed a rise in celebrity candidates contesting elections from the state, but an analysis of these celebrity candidates in Parliament shows evidence of poor show as far as their attendance and performance records are concerned.
Out of the seven celebrity candidates who went to the Lok Sabha from West Bengal in 2014, not one had over 80% of attendance in Parliament—something that is considered as the national average as far as attendance of members of Lok Sabha is concerned. Deepak Adhikari (Dev), a renowned Bengali film actor and a Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP from the Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency, is one of the worst performers in the 16th Lok Sabha.
He has just 11% attendance in Parliament with participation in just two debates and has asked just three questions in Parliament over the last five years. Veteran actress and TMC MP from Bankura, Moon Moon Sen, is another poor performer in the 16th Lok Sabha—she has 69% attendance in Parliament and has participated in just one debate throughout her five-year term. She has not asked a single question in Parliament. Surprisingly, both these candidates have been given tickets for re-election by the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC.
Babul Supriyo, Union Minister and the lone BJP Lok Sabha member from West Bengal, is also one of the worst performers in the 16th Lok Sabha, with less than 45% attendance, and with no participation in any debates in Parliament in the last five years. Supriyo has also failed to ask a single question in Parliament during his term from 2014 to 2019.
The other celebrity Members of Parliament who performed poorly include veteran Bengali actor and Rose Valley chit fund scam accused Tapas Pal (Krishnanagar) with just 47% attendance and participation in just eight debates; Sandhya Roy and Satabdi Roy, all from the TMC.
Despite their poor performance, Mamata Banerjee, in her list of candidates, has even this time nominated six celebrity candidates for the elections to the 17th Lok Sabha. Among the new celebrity faces going to contest from West Bengal on TMC tickets are actresses Mimi Chakraborty (Jadavpur seat) and Nusrat Jahan (Basirhat seat).
The last time, TMC had fielded eight celebrity candidates from the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, out of whom six had won. Former Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia had contested but lost from Darjeeling and singer turned politician Indranil Sen lost from Behrampur to Congress’ Adhir Chowdhury.
The BJP, which has grown as the principal opposition party in the state in the last few years, had also fielded five celebrity candidates in 2014, out of whom only one —Babul Supriyo—had won from Asansol.
Other celebrity candidates in BJP’s list from Bengal in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls included renowned singer Bapi Lahiri, magician P.C. Sarkar (Junior), actor turned politician Joy Banerjee and former Indian cricket player, coach and selector Satyabrata Mukherjee. However, this time, the BJP has so far announced one celebrity candidate, Babul Supriyo from Bengal. The BJP released its first list for Bengal, which had the names of 27 candidates out 42 Lok Sabha seats from Bengal.