Lok Sabha Polls: Nusrat Jahan, Mimi Chakraborty, Arjun Singh Dropped as TMC Erases Big Names from List – News18

Former India cricketer Yusuf Pathan’s name in the first list announced by the TMC for the Lok Sabha elections may have stolen the limelight, but it is also hard to ignore the big names dropped by the party – two of the most clicked MPs in Parliament, Nusrat Jahan and Mimi Chakraborty, as well as Arjun Singh.

Sandeshkhali’s ‘photoshoot MP’

Nusrat was largely absent in terms of her engagements within the organisation while her parliamentary attendance was below average. She was missing in the special session of Parliament, which was called to pass the women’s reservation bill, something the TMC tried to own up by saying they have always walked the talk by giving maximum tickets to female candidates.

The biggest controversy associated with her name was how she refused to acknowledge the legality of her marriage to Nikhil Jain while allegedly being in a relationship with now-husband Yash Dasgupta. But, what really proved to be a jarring moment for her was when she was posting pictures of a Valentine’s Day photoshoot with her husband on social media, as women were protesting in Sandeshkhali, which is under her Lok Sabha constituency Basirhat.

Politics not for her

Another MP, Mimi Chakraborty – a Bengali actress who won from Jadavpur in South Kolkata – had already resigned and expressed her wish not to be fielded again, saying “politics is not for me”. This wisdom dawned upon the glamourous MP after five years, even as she talked about “roadblocks” she faced to “serve” people.

She, too, had her fair share of controverisal moments. During Covid-19, she became a victim of a privately arranged fake vaccine and blew the lid off a racket being run in Bengal. The TMC was embarrassed while the BJP went all out on the state government. While campaigning in 2019, there was another controversy when she was spotted wearing gloves so as to avoid direct contact while shaking hands with the electorate.

Barrackpore’s ‘last word’?

Another prominent face dropped this time is Arjun Singh, often called the “last word” in Barrackpore. The strongman and sitting MP switched to the BJP and, finally in 2022, returned to the TMC. But, he has been spotted cozying up to BJP MPs in the central hall and has privately attributed his joining the TMC as “financial loss”.

Adhikaris missing

While it was bound to happen, but BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s father Sishir Adhikari and brother Dibyendu Adhikari have also been dropped. While they did not formally join the BJP, they shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and voted along the BJP line in the vice-president’s poll.