Celebs throw weight behind Arpita Ghosh

KOLKATA: Arindam Sil is an actor, Subodh Sarkar and Suvaprasanna painters, Joy Goswami a poet and Manoj Mitra a thespian. On Monday, they all came together at the Press Club to support theatre personality Arpita Ghosh, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Balurghat, and wish her success for the upcoming election. Surprisingly, some of the noted personalities who were present at Monday's press conference share a good rapport with Left leaders.
The list of star supporters for Arpita, who also heads the Sishu Kishore Academy, also include Bivas Chakraborty, Swati Lekha Sengupta, Meghnad Bhattacharya, Manish Mitra, Debesh Chattapadhyay, Jogen Choudhury and Monomoy Bhattacharyay. They all appealed to Balurghat voters to vote for Arpita and send her to Parliament. Education minister Bratya Basu also attended the press meet to campaign for Arpita.
Experts feel such open support will work in favour of Arpita, who was branded as an 'outsider' by partymen in Balurghat. "I am supported by all my party colleagues and there is endorsement of the party chief," she claimed on Monday.
Arindam Sil and Subodh Sarkar, known to be Left inclined, said they opted for Arpita as she was a theatre personality and their views have changed during the past two years. Sil, who claimed himself to be a communist, said he always wanted a better living for the poor. "But I cannot continue with the CPM and my disillusionment has led me to take this decision. I do not have any political aspiration and for that I have come to urge people to vote for Arpita. If she wins then she can speak about the art and theatre in Parliament apart from representing her Balurghat constituency," he said.
Speaking on his switch-over, Sarkar said, "It is by choice that I am supporting Arpita. I had a different view even in 2011 and now I have come here on my own, though Bratya and Arpita had invited me. Bratya has been my colleague for over a decade, so I couldn't turn down his invitation."
Artist Suvaprasanna said that "Subodh and Arindam are friends and though they were on the other side, we never made any acrid comments about them and now they are with us supporting Arpita." Trinamool MP Jogen Choudhury added that Arpita can work wonders as an MP.
Playwright Meghnad Bhattacharya came out in support of Arpita since she's from the theatre world. "I would have gone with the CPM if it had fielded any candidate from the theatre world," he claimed. If people from the world of culture steps into politics, there can be better conscience and it is good for governance as well, felt poet Joy Goswami.
Basu, who chaired the meeting, said that Sil was a sensitive man and had understood that it's better to side with the Trinamool and for that he came to support Arpita.