Following the BJP’s victory in West Bengal’s assembly election, Tollywood actress and Lok Sabha MP Rachna Banerjee left the Trinamool Congress, as many others have. While various people have offered different explanations for her departure, Rachna herself said she would have stayed with Trinamool had BJP not won.
According to a report in Indian media, MP Rachna attended a “Bharat Mata Puja” event hosted by BJP legislator Subir Nag in Chunchura, Hooghly district, West Bengal. Explaining her party switch there, the Hooghly MP said: “I’ve done a lot of work. I have three more years as MP. There’s more work to be done. I don’t understand BJP, Trinamool, CPM — I want to work for the people. I’ll do that work alongside BJP legislators.”
Rachna claims that in her early days as an MP, she wasn’t given the opportunity to work for ordinary people. She said Mamata Banerjee would tell her about the central government’s “financial deprivation” of the state instead. Rachna said: “I went to many people. I tried to resolve the river erosion problem in Balagarh and the railway issues.”
She said a “double-engine” government is needed to escape the tug-of-war between the center and the state — otherwise development becomes practically impossible.
Rachna also offered sweeping praise for West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, claiming he has done sufficiently good work as chief minister in a short span of time.
Rachna also brought up then-Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s appearance on the set of “Didi Number One” during the last Lok Sabha election. She said: “I’m not an ordinary girl. Mamata understood that, which is why she came to the ‘Didi Number One’ set. She knew I wouldn’t come to her. Why was I made the candidate against Locket? But I still have respect for Mamata Banerjee.”
Speaking candidly, Rachna said: “If the BJP hadn’t won, I would have stayed with Trinamool.”
She also addressed the “Urbana” controversy, saying with some regret: “An MP had attacked me, so I responded. I used to live in a small flat. I dreamed of living in Urbana, of keeping my parents there. That dream came true. I’d never told anyone this before. I also buy clothes from Gariahat. My mother lives in Garia. My friends didn’t say anything about my comment, but some people did on social media. Now I feel it would have been better not to have made that Urbana comment.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report