Within two weeks of joining the BJP on the dais of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's event at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, actor Mithun Chakraborty has got his name enrolled as a voter in West Bengal, a prerequisite for contesting Assembly elections in a state.
Chakraborty’s name has been enrolled as a voter of Kashipur-Belgachhia Assembly constituency in Kolkata, with his sister Sharmishta Sarkar's residential address on Raja Manindra Roy Road in north Kolkata as his address.
In the voter list, his name has been written as Mithun Basanta Chakraborty, said a senior leader of West Bengal BJP who has knowledge of the development.
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Basanta, which has been used as the middle name, is his father's name.
The 70-year-old actor-turned-politician has been a TMC Rajya Sabha MP between 2014 and 2016 and was a voter of Maharashtra until this change of address.
With this development, speculations are ripe in the BJP's West Bengal unit about his possible candidature in Assembly elections. The party is yet to name candidates in 25 of the total 294 Assembly seats. Of these seats, two are in Kolkata - Kashipur-Belgachhia, and Chowringhee. Incidentally, the BJP faced a major embarrassment when candidates, the party named for Kashipur-Belgachhia and Chowringhee, refused to contest, saying they had not joined the BJP and that the party did not consult them before naming them as candidates.
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"The possibility of Chakraborty being fielded from either of these seats cannot be ruled-out at this moment. The issue is being discussed at the highest level," said a senior leader of state BJP who did not want to be named.
These seats will go to the elections in the final phase on April 29 and the last day for filing nomination is April 7.
Chakraborty had earlier said he was ready for whatever role the party wanted him to play, including contesting elections.
The BJP has this year fielded a number of film and television industry stars but Chakraborty is certainly the biggest name of them all.
As of now, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who once had a cordial relationship with Chakraborty, has not spent a single word on the actor. Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP, Sougata Roy, however, had played down his importance by dubbing him as "a star of the yesteryears."
Chakraborty is scheduled to carry out an extensive campaign for the BJP, even though he has hardly taken part in the campaign since his joining. State BJP leaders said that Chakraborty had gone back to Mumbai for work related to changing his voter address.
