How Mamata got BJP ‘friends’ on board for Kolkata film festival – India Today

Ex-cricketer Sourav Ganguly, his wife Dona, vocalist Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty and actress Srabanti Chatterjee, who attended the inaugural event, were thought to be close to the BJP in the past

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee

Several West Bengal celebrities and filmstars who have graced the BJP camp in various capacities in the past assembled on the podium at the inauguration of the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) on December 15. It was perhaps chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s way of flaunting that these personalities owe allegiance to her and none, albeit some efforts at appropriation by the BJP prior to the 2021 assembly polls.

Among the prominent such faces at the gathering were former cricketer Sourav Ganguly and his wife classical dancer Dona. The other surprises were classical vocalist Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, who had met Union home minister Amit Shah in November 2020, and actress Srabanti Chatterjee, a BJP candidate in the last state election. Predictably, film star Mithun Chakraborty, who had joined the BJP on the eve of the assembly polls, was not there.

Sourav has met Shah on various occasions. He hosted the BJP leader at his Kolkata home in May this year, and the two have even been seen watching a cricket match or two in stadiums. Shah obviously had an interest—to have Bengal’s ‘Dada’, as Sourav is popularly known, in his camp to counter the popularity of Bengal’s ‘Didi’ aka Mamata. Dona has been a regular performer at BJP events in the state, including Durga puja organised by party leaders in Kolkata.

In the run-up to the 2021 assembly election, there had been great speculation about Sourav joining the BJP. But he got hospitalised with cardiac complications in January 2021, upsetting the BJP’s plans. With time, as BJP leaders somewhat started moving away from Sourav, Mamata saw an opportunity and embraced Dada. She had invited him to the state secretariat this April and also visited him on his birthday, July 8. In October, Didi even requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow Sourav to contest the ICC (International Cricket Council) elections.

With Didi projecting Sourav as ‘ghorer chele’ (Bengal’s own son), it was perhaps understood that she would not allow the appropriation of Bengal’s sporting icon by the BJP, a party that her Trinamool Congress (TMC) dubs as a ‘Hindi heartland’ political outfit.

Sourav’s equation with the BJP may have snapped after his removal as BCCI president. Mamata was quick to dub this as unethical and vendetta politics. The TMC got a chance to equate the development with the alleged discrimination of Bengal by the BJP-led Union government, the pending central dues being one example.

Not only did Sourav and Dona attend KIFF, she and her troupe also presented a performance on a script conceptualised by Mamata herself. The chief minister also felicitated Dona. As for Srabanti, she had severed ties with the BJP citing disenchantment, while Chakrabarty had made it clear that hosting Amit Shah should not be construed as anything beyond the realm of music. “I belong to the Music Party,” he has said in the past, scotching talks of joining the BJP.

Mamata’s success in attracting celebrities long thought to be close to the BJP is the latest round in the ongoing tussle between her party and the saffron camp in Bengal. Professor Sobhanlal Dutta Gupta, former head of political science department at Calcutta University, says the presence of intellectuals at such programmes is a given when the invite comes from the chief minister. “If invites are personally sent by the chief minister, it’ll be discourteous to not attend. But importantly, even celebrities considered close to the BJP were invited, whatever the reason may be. Their presence, however, may have been sought only after it got established that they no longer have ties with BJP,” he said. For now, it’s match point Mamata. Wait for the BJP to strike next.

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