Claiming Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was forced to nominate films stars, singers and footballers as Lok Sabha election candidates as she was losing control of her party, West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury Friday said the leaders who fought for years against the Left's rule have been ignored.In an apparent reference to Trinamool national general secretary Mukul Roy, Chowdhury said "the political control of Trinamool was now getting concentrated in the hands of a general secretary. Banerjee is losing her grip."It is for this reason that Banerjee has had to turn to films stars, sportsmen and singers. The candidates she has announced are reflective of her losing political control," said Chowdhury, also the minister for state for railways."I think this is also the reason she has decided to field her nephew Abhishek Bandopadhyay for the polls," he said.
Chowdhury wondered why the Trinamool was ignoring its time-tested leaders who spent decades "fighting the Left Front when it was in power"."Why is the Trinamool suddenly feeling the dearth of political personalities? Why are those leaders who struggled against the Left, got beaten up, but still fought, now being ignored? Who are these people who have emerged into the political world from the cine world?"Averring that matinee idols and singers have failed to exert any influence in the state's politics so far, he said "it smacks off a political crisis."Chowdhury said while the Congress too fielded non-political persons including cultural personalities in elections, "we never opted to nominate so many at the same time".Reigning Bengali matinee idol Dev, film personalities Moon Moon Sen, Sandhya Roy, Tapas Pal and Satabdi Roy, former Indian soccer skippersBhaichung Bhutia and Prasun Banerjee, singers Indranil Sen and Soumitra Roy, and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grand nephew Sugata Bose figure in the list of Trinamool Congress candidates announced by Banerjee here Wednesday.