Rachana Banerjee(L) and Locket Chatterjee.
Credit: PTI File Photos
Rachana Banerjee, TMC
Rachana Banerjee is better known as ‘Didi No. 1’ because it is the homonymous TV game show she hosts that made her a household name across West Bengal. But the ‘Didi’ of West Bengal politics, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee picked the 51-year-old model-turned-actress as the Trinamool Congress’s candidate to take on BJP’s MP Locket Chatterjee, in her Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency. Banerjee did make a few faux pas in the early days of her campaigning. She was trolled on social media when she countered the opposition’s 'lack of industry' barb to the ruling TMC, stating that she saw chimneys of many factories emitting smoke on her way to Singur – the hotbed of industry versus agriculture debate in West Bengal. She, however, got her act together. She is even campaigning on local trains, apart from rallies and 'padayatras'. She is relying on her celebrity status and the TMC's welfare schemes. Both ‘Didi’ and Abhishek Banerjee, ‘TMC’s No. 2’, held rallies to add momentum to the campaigning of ‘Didi No 1’. Rachana’s first husband (divorced in 2004), Siddhanta Mohapatra, is a BJP candidate in an assembly constituency in neighbouring Odisha.
Locket Chatterjee, BJP
Daughter of a priest of the Kali Temple in Dakshineshwar in West Bengal, Locket Chatterjee grew up by river Hooghly and went on to become an accomplished Bharat Natyam and Kathakali danseuse during her school days. She had a long and illustrious career as a film actress before venturing into politics. She quit the Trinamool Congress and joined the BJP in 2015. She contested but lost the 2016 state assembly polls from Mayureshwar, but was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hooghly in 2019, by securing 46.06% votes and defeating Ratna De of the TMC. Internal bickering within the BJP’s units in Hooghly has weighed down her campaign to retain the seat this year. The TMC accused him of not paying any attention to the development of the constituency in the past five years. The “Missing: Locket Mukherjee” posters were also spotted at various places in the constituency. Her campaign, however, got a boost after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Hooghly. She recently accused the TMC of trying to lure voters with an offer to participate in Didi No 1, the TV game show its candidate Rachana Banerjee hosts.