Trinamool banks on TV's Didi No. 1 Rachana Banerjee to woo women in Lok Sabha polls

Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Banerjee said she has been a Trinamool supporter for a long time

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently added another dash of glamour to the Trinamool Congress list for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The Trinamool chief fielded Rachana Banerjee from the Hooghly seat.

Banerjee is the host of the popular Bengali television show ‘Didi No. 1’, which keeps Bengali women across the state hooked to the silver screen for an hour daily. A few weeks ago, the West Bengal Chief Minister appeared on ‘Didi No.1’.

Banerjee has been pitted against former actor Locket Chatterjee who is a sitting BJP MP from Hooghly. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Chatterjee clinched a landslide victory with a margin of 73,362 votes from Hooghly. According to reports, Chatterjee said this is not “Rachana versus Locket”  but “Mamata versus Modi”.

Meanwhile, Banerjee said she has been a Trinamool supporter for a long time. “Although, I was not into active politics, I am a fan of the CM as I believe in Nari Shakti and she is an inspiration for every woman,” she told the media.

Who is Rachana Banerjee?

Jhumjhum Banerjee alias Rachana Banerjee was born on October 2, 1974. She was crowned Miss Kolkata in 1994. She has been a leading lady in several Bengali movies She adopted the screen name of Rachana at the suggestion of director Sukhen Das. Banerjee has also acted in films across several languages, including Odia, Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada. She also acted alongside Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Sooryavansham’.

However, no film earned her the popularity that ‘Didi No.1’ did. Interestingly, Rachana was not the first choice for the show. But no face stuck on the way she did. Currently, she has 3.8 million followers on Facebook and 891k followers on Instagram.

Why did Trinamool pick Rachana Banerjee?

The small island in the Sundarban delta of West Bengal’s North 24-Parganas district has been at the centre of BJP-Trinamool politics in the state for a while. Women of Sandeshkhali have accused local Trinamool leaders of land grab, extortion, and sexual harassment. The Trinamool has expelled its local strongman Sheikh Shahjahan who is now in the CBI custody. However, the accusation has given the BJP an opportunity to paint Mamata Banerjee’s party as “anti-women”. In the 2021 Assembly polls, Trinamool’s women voters may have played a big part in ensuring the party’s victory. With the Sandeshkhali incident, the Trinamool can’t afford to lose women supporters. The BJP had already won a record 18 of the 42 seats from the state in the last Lok Sabha election.

This is where Banerjee comes in. Her audience cuts across the urban-rural divide and age groups. By fielding her, Trinamool is looking to reach out to a wider demographic. The party has fielded popular actors in the past too, including Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan and Dev. But Banerjee comes on TV daily and her fans consist of women across economic classes and in both urban and rural belts. The Trinamool aims at capturing Banerjee’s fan base.

However, the TV anchor understands there are no retakes in politics. In a recent interview, she was quoted as saying “we need power and a platform to work for people, and there is no bigger platform than this”.