Roopa, Locket, Agnimitra — how BJP mahila morcha got a ‘glamorous turn’ in Bengal

Agnimitra Paul, a fashion designer, became Bengal BJP chief earlier this month. Her immediate predecessors are actors Roopa Ganguly & Locket Chatterjee.

(L to R) BJP leaders Locket Chatterjee, Roopa Ganguly and Agnimitra Paul | ThePrint Team

Kolkata: From Roopa Ganguly of Mahabharat fame to Tollywood star Locket Chatterjee and now Agnimitra Paul, a fashion designer, the Bengal BJP has made a trend of appointing women from the world of glamour as leaders of its mahila morcha (women’s wing) in Bengal. 

Paul took charge as Bengal mahila morcha chief earlier this month, becoming a senior office-bearer just over a year after her induction into the BJP. 

Over the past five years, the post was held by Ganguly and Chatterjee, both of whom are now MPs, in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, respectively.

All three are believed to have faced resistance within the party while rising through the ranks, much of it because their background in films and fashion was seen as a disadvantage by veteran politicians, BJP leaders said. 

While BJP insiders acknowledge that their glamour and public appeal were a factor in bringing them to the forefront, they credit them with helping the party establish itself in a state where it’s yet to taste power.

Glamorous past

The BJP’s mahila morcha is known to play an active role in the state’s politics, taking part in dharnas, road blockades and gheraos. During agitations, it functions like the first line of defence. 

The role of the BJP’s mahila morcha particularly gained prominence when its women candidates won over 2,500 of the 5,779 gram panchayat seats secured by the BJP in the 2018 panchayat elections. 

“At least 2,500 women candidates won in the panchayat elections in 2018, which means that women have an important role to play in Bengal politics, they just need to be brought out of their houses and motivated,” Chatterjee told ThePrint in an interview for this report. 

While it has played an important role organisationally, the morcha really gained prominence when Ganguly was appointed its chief.

Ganguly took charge as the BJP’s Bengal mahila morcha chief in 2015, succeeding Jyotsna Banerjee, a veteran party leader who held the post for nearly five years. She had joined the BJP the year before, after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. 

Her appointment as women’s wing chief came close on the heels of Dilip Ghosh’s election as Bengal BJP president. 

Chatterjee was appointed to the post in July 2017, two years after she joined the BJP. Until 2015, she was a member of the Trinamool Congress, which is believed to have introduced the trend of celebrity politicians in the state. Chatterjee quit the party because she claimed she felt “suffocated” in the Trinamool Congress.  

For Agnimitra Paul, the stint with the BJP is her first political outing. She joined the party in March last year, but had been in the news earlier for her social work initiatives under the Mamata Banerjee government, including for senior citizens and women jail inmates. 

Ganguly’s appointment, BJP sources told ThePrint, was initially resisted by a group of senior leaders who saw her cinema stint as a disadvantage. There were also grumbles about the fact that her rise had been so quick, the sources said.

Even though Chatterjee’s appointment as mahila morcha chief came after a two-year stint as a party worker, sources claimed it was still opposed within the organisation.

Chatterjee acknowledged that “a lot of noises were made over my past as an actor” when she joined the party, adding that her “opponents also ran a slander campaign against me”. 

“But I believed in myself and continued doing my work. I left everything that was related to my career in the film industry. That was a different world. People thought I would not be able to go out in the sun, work in the heat and rain, not be able to bear dust and sweat.

“But I left everything, my fancy clothes, the make-up I wore on-screen,” she said. “I am now part of them and they know that.” 

Paul echoed Chatterjee, saying she knew her appointment had invited resistance. “I know it is a challenge. I am new to the system. But I have nothing to gain and nothing to steal from anybody. I come from a financially comfortable family. I just want to work among people,” said Paul, a veteran of two decades in the fashion industry.

“My party has given me much scope to work and the senior leaders believed in me. My decision to join the BJP is Modiji. The BJP’s ideology is a bit different from any other party, but Modi ji inspired me,” Paul told ThePrint. 

ThePrint tried to reach Ganguly for comment through calls and text but hadn’t received a response by the time of publishing this report.

‘The primary idea’

Asked if the position of mahila morcha chief was all about the appointment of glamorous faces with public appeal, a veteran BJP leader of vice-president rank said it was the “primary idea”.

“To some extent this is true. But there are reasons. Just after the 2014 general elections, our central leaders saw political opportunity in Bengal. However, we did not have public faces then. Roopa Ganguly, who was energetic in her approach, was pushed to forefront, organising dharnas and giving slogans to get media mileage,” the leader said. 

“We needed that then. A year down the line, the political dynamics in the state changed. Dilip da is now known to have an image of a fiery leader,” he added. 

The leader said both Chatterjee and Ganguly had helped the party in different ways.

While Ganguly “was more into theatrics, and used to get media attention for shouting slogans/creating ruckus etc”, Locket is also into organisation-building,” he added.

“We see Locket as one of the most successful of our turncoat recruits.

After the 2014 and 2016 elections, many Trinamool Congress members joined us. But Locket is the one who worked really hard to earn this position. She travelled extensively across districts. Going to villages and staying with people, walking and gheraoing government offices, police stations, she has done it all,” he added. 

“In fact, she pulled through the Hooghly seat almost alone. It was a difficult parliamentary seat.” 

In 2019, Chatterjee had won the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat with almost 46 per cent of the votes, defeating Trinamool Congress candidate Ratna De Nag by almost 74,000 votes. Under her, the mahila morcha had grown to an organisation of almost 40,000 members, Chatterjee said. 

According to the poll affidavit filed by Chatterjee before the Election Commission in 2019, she faces 14 cases involving 59 charges such as attempt to murder, rioting, using explosive substance, destroying public property, obstructing government servants, most of which can be traced to her tenure as mahila morcha chief. 

In the past one year, she claimed, the number has risen to 25.