Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, March 14
Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday announced Shatrughan Sinha as her party’s candidate for the Asansol Lok Sabha by-poll, much to the surprise of political pundits.
The constituency will go to the polls next month.
The septuagenarian film star has quit the BJP ahead of 2019 general elections. Shatrughan joined the Congress and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Patna Saheb that he had been representing. He lost to BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad.
He later joined TMC headed by Mamata Banerjee. That was however no surprise, but TMC announcing his name as party’s pick for Asansol has come as a surprise. Mamata pitting a Bihari leader to contest in West Bengal is learnt to be part of her long-drawn strategy aimed to increase the party’s national footprint.
Asansol lies on Jharkhand-Bihar-Odisha trijunction has cosmopolitan character because of industrial and mining sector growth in the region. The voters with Bihar origin influence the electoral politics and it could be endorsed by the fact that Bihari surname candidates had gained in the past.
The TMC Chief has been eyeing national leaders. After Yashwant Sinha, Sushmita Dev and Luizinho Faleiro, Shatrughan Sinha is her latest catch. The film star is a good orator and has made his presence at the national level that TMC now wishes to encash. The move will help TMC that is desperately trying to project itself as a truly national party.
Sinha has an influence in the Hindi heartland that is crucial for TMC to establish as a national party. The actor can address the issue and emerge as the party’s face in the Hindi belt.
However, by sending Sinha to the Parliament, TMC intends to gain from their experience to put up a strong opposition in the House.
