Actress, politician Srabanti Chatterjee ‘severs ties’ with BJP

On Thursday, a popular Bengali film actress Srabanti Chatterjee announced in a tweet that she was “severing all ties” with the party citing the BJP’s “lack of initiative and sincerity to further the cause of Bengal” as the reason behind the decision. This comes Nearly seven months after joining the BJP

“Severing all ties with the BJP, the party for which I fought the last state elections. (The) reason being their lack of initiative and sincerity to further the cause of Bengal,” she tweeted on Thursday Morning.

Though Chatterjee did not say if she will join Trinamool Congress, she left enough hint with her “let the time speak” comment to a query on whether she was planning to join the Mamata Banerjee-led party.

This comes in the wake of several top leaders quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Politicians including Mukul Roy— who was BJP vice-president— have quit the party following its defeat in the assembly elections this year. Babul Supriyo, who contested the state polls unsuccessfully and then was benched from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, is another high-profile to switch camp.

Before him, three MLAs – Biswajit Das, Tanmoy Ghosh, Soumen Roy – defected to the Trinamool Congress in the last one month within six days.

Actress Srabanti Chatterjee joined the BJP before the assembly elections, and picked up the flag from the hands of the then BJP leader Kailash Vijoyborgiya and Dilip Ghosh. Chatterjee became a candidate in the Behala West seat and fought against Parth Chatterjee, ending up losing the race by a hefty margin of 50,000 votes.

Not only Srabanti, but also Parno Mitra, Pael Sarkar, Tanushree and many other stars were fielded by the BJP. With the exception of a few names like actor Hiran or designer Agnimitra Pal, no one else was seen in the list of winning candidates.

According to the political circles, Srabanti’s departure will not have any effect on the party. She was not active, nor did she do any work for the organization. However, the fact that the leaders have left the party in this way is considered by many to be a blow for the BJP in TMC-ruled Bengal.