Bengal
M’pore tilting towards stardom
- The Statesman
- 07 May 2014
Left leaders admit that it is becoming difficult to counter roy’s glamour quotient
Biswabrata Goswami
biswabrata@thestatesman.net
Midnapore, 6 May
The electoral battle in the Midnapore parliamentary constituency is truly fabled proportions between a novice and a politically matured one.
While sitting MP Prabodh Panda of the CPI is fighting to retain his seat for the third time, his closest rival is Ms Sandhya Roy of the Trinamul Congress, one of the leading ladies of Bengali cinema in the 1960s and a first-time candidate.
The buzz in the constituency is that despite his years in public service, Mr Panda seemed worried that a novice like Ms Sen, could turn the tables on him.
The yesteryear actress Ms Roy is one of the most famous actresses of romantic Bengali cinema and is widely acknowledged for her great acting skills and sweet and cherubic face from 1960 to 1985.
Being a versatile actress, she has experimented successfully with character-roles and second leads such as playing the sister-in-law in the fist movie of Tapas Paul Dadar Kirti or in Sriman Prithviraj.
It is her effortless acting prowess that made her equally comfortable in the critically acclaimed ventures such as Satyajit Ray's Ashani Sanket and Tarun Majumdar's Thagini and the out-and-out commercial venture such as Baba Taraknath. If the turnout is an indicator of poll results then Ms Roy is expected to put up a good fight tomorrow when she takes on Mr Panda. Midnapore is one of the six seats that will go to poll in the fourth phase in West Bengal.
On the flipside, the CPI candidate’s fate could be viewed particularly as tragic as the seat was represented by legendary parliamentarian and Marxist ideologue Indrajit Gupta for seven terms between 1980 and 1999.
Left leaders admit that it is getting increasingly harder to counter the glamour quotient the film actress has brought to the constituency.
Though, Mr Panda is very much optimistic of winning the poll with a greater margin and said, “Ms Roy hasn’t made any public speech about issues in Midnapore.”
“These non-political people are set to bring down the standard of Parliament,” he said.
Ms Roy, however, said, “The feelers I am getting are very positive. I am new to politics and have come here only on the insistence of Ms Mamata Banerjee.”
She also said: “I could not deny the call of Didi to come forward and work for the welfare of the common people. I readily agreed to it since I have a very close rapport with the people of Midnapore. I have staged innumerable plays and Jatras in Midnapore. I am therefore 100 per cent compatible with the electorates here. I am new in politics, but I will soon get accustomed to the ways of it.” Ms Sandhya Roy has become a tourist attraction with her rented second floor flat in Rabindranagar in the heart of Midnapore town, being watched by a group of people at all times of the day hoping to catch a glimpse of the actor.
Local Left leaders have been campaigning hard saying that actors cannot do what seasoned politicians can, but their cries get desperate as the star status of their opponents seems to be tilting the election in their favour.
“Not all of them might vote for the stars but right now it has become difficult for us to determine what percentage of voters will vote for us,” said a CPI-M leader.
The Left Front has made a clean sweep at Midnapore in both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections several times in a row barring the last Assembly polls. Even, during the parivartan wave in the last parliamentary polls, the Left had won four Assembly constituencies.
In the 2008 panchayat polls when much of Bengal reeled under the Singur-Nandigram effect, the CPI-M and its allies managed to win major numbers of gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishad seats.
Left sympathisers, in search of a bit of 'red' hope, may find succour in these glorious electoral statistics. But if they travel through interior Midnapore, the more sensitive among them may also be driven to deep despair because the stark truth is that even after 34 years of Left Front rule and uninterrupted CPI-M dominance, the levels of poverty and under-development are staggering.
Biswabrata Goswami
biswabrata@thestatesman.net
Midnapore, 6 May
The electoral battle in the Midnapore parliamentary constituency is truly fabled proportions between a novice and a politically matured one.
While sitting MP Prabodh Panda of the CPI is fighting to retain his seat for the third time, his closest rival is Ms Sandhya Roy of the Trinamul Congress, one of the leading ladies of Bengali cinema in the 1960s and a first-time candidate.
The buzz in the constituency is that despite his years in public service, Mr Panda seemed worried that a novice like Ms Sen, could turn the tables on him.
The yesteryear actress Ms Roy is one of the most famous actresses of romantic Bengali cinema and is widely acknowledged for her great acting skills and sweet and cherubic face from 1960 to 1985.
Being a versatile actress, she has experimented successfully with character-roles and second leads such as playing the sister-in-law in the fist movie of Tapas Paul Dadar Kirti or in Sriman Prithviraj.
It is her effortless acting prowess that made her equally comfortable in the critically acclaimed ventures such as Satyajit Ray's Ashani Sanket and Tarun Majumdar's Thagini and the out-and-out commercial venture such as Baba Taraknath. If the turnout is an indicator of poll results then Ms Roy is expected to put up a good fight tomorrow when she takes on Mr Panda. Midnapore is one of the six seats that will go to poll in the fourth phase in West Bengal.
On the flipside, the CPI candidate’s fate could be viewed particularly as tragic as the seat was represented by legendary parliamentarian and Marxist ideologue Indrajit Gupta for seven terms between 1980 and 1999.
Left leaders admit that it is getting increasingly harder to counter the glamour quotient the film actress has brought to the constituency.
Though, Mr Panda is very much optimistic of winning the poll with a greater margin and said, “Ms Roy hasn’t made any public speech about issues in Midnapore.”
“These non-political people are set to bring down the standard of Parliament,” he said.
Ms Roy, however, said, “The feelers I am getting are very positive. I am new to politics and have come here only on the insistence of Ms Mamata Banerjee.”
She also said: “I could not deny the call of Didi to come forward and work for the welfare of the common people. I readily agreed to it since I have a very close rapport with the people of Midnapore. I have staged innumerable plays and Jatras in Midnapore. I am therefore 100 per cent compatible with the electorates here. I am new in politics, but I will soon get accustomed to the ways of it.” Ms Sandhya Roy has become a tourist attraction with her rented second floor flat in Rabindranagar in the heart of Midnapore town, being watched by a group of people at all times of the day hoping to catch a glimpse of the actor.
Local Left leaders have been campaigning hard saying that actors cannot do what seasoned politicians can, but their cries get desperate as the star status of their opponents seems to be tilting the election in their favour.
“Not all of them might vote for the stars but right now it has become difficult for us to determine what percentage of voters will vote for us,” said a CPI-M leader.
The Left Front has made a clean sweep at Midnapore in both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections several times in a row barring the last Assembly polls. Even, during the parivartan wave in the last parliamentary polls, the Left had won four Assembly constituencies.
In the 2008 panchayat polls when much of Bengal reeled under the Singur-Nandigram effect, the CPI-M and its allies managed to win major numbers of gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishad seats.
Left sympathisers, in search of a bit of 'red' hope, may find succour in these glorious electoral statistics. But if they travel through interior Midnapore, the more sensitive among them may also be driven to deep despair because the stark truth is that even after 34 years of Left Front rule and uninterrupted CPI-M dominance, the levels of poverty and under-development are staggering.
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