Bengal BJP chief nearly courted controversy by his remarks on TMC's Tollywood candidates
Kolkata, Mar 15 (IBNS): West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Dilip Ghosh on Friday almost struck a row when he nearly justified the online trolls of two Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha candidates from the world of showbiz- actresses Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan.
When he was asked about the online trolling of the two actresses, both of whom play heroines in contemporary Tollywood potboilers, Ghosh said: "Discussion will take place depending on their category and character..... It is a matter of thinking."
"Has Bengal became so poor (that celebrities will have to contest polls)? I would say it is not BJP but Mamata Banerjee who defamed Bengal. There is no comparison between the Jadavpur's previous candidates like Somnath Chatterjee, Sugata Bose and the newest one (Mimi Chakraborty)."
When cornered to clarify what he meant by the word 'character', the Bengal BJP president salvaged his remark by saying "character means filmy character."
"Discussion will take place on the basis of their profession."
Interestingly the BJP has two actresses- Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee- who are in the forefront of the saffron brigade in West Bengal with the former being the Rajya Sabha MP.
But Ghosh tried to differentiate between the representations by Ganguly-Chatterjee and Chakraborty-Jahan saying the BJP duo is much experienced.
"Our party has such candidate like Roopa Ganguly. The number of years Ganguly worked in films are more that the TMC candidates' ages. She was much talented and award winner. Everyone has a right to contest elections but whom are TMC projecting? Are Mimi and Nusrat the faces of Bengal or TMC?"
"God forbid, if they (Chakraborty and Jahan) win, will they be the right persons to represent Bengal in the Parliament? I don't know. What experience do they have? Mamata Banerjee is unable to trust her own party men. This is the real situation of TMC," he added.
Nusrat Jahan hits back at trolls:
Hitting back at the memes, jokes on internet, Jahan reportedly called people who are trolling her as "uncultured".
"I think this is the change that we are trying to bring about. Trolling is a new way of demeaning women. We want women to be given more respect. I don't know who these people are and why they indulge in such online abuse. I think they are simply uncultured. If they knew how to respect their mothers and sisters, they would've respected us as well," the 29-year old actress has been quoted by News 18.
Glamour in TMC's candidate list:
Adding the glamour quotient, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee fielded Chakraborty and Jahan, retaining some of other sitting celebrity MPs like Dev, Moon Moon Sen, Satabdi Roy.
Chakraborty and Jahan, two of the leading contemporary Bengali contemporary actresses in commercial movies, will fight the electoral contest from West Bengal's Jadavpur and Basirhat seats.
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