Mukul Roy vs Kaushani Mukherjee: It’s a fight between old warhorse and greenhorn in Krishnagar Uttar

Kolkata: Krishnanagar Uttar constituency this time will witness neck and neck fight between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president Mukul Roy and actress-cum-Trinamool congress (TMC) candidate Kaushani Mukherjee.

The heavyweight candidate Mr Roy, who was once a key leader of the Trinamool Congress and former Railway Minister, is back in the electoral fray after a gap of two decades.

The last time Mr Roy had contested an election was in 2001 from Jagatdal Assembly constituency in his home district of North 24-Parganas. He lost to the Forward Block candidate Haripada Biswas by a margin of 13,402 votes.

Going by the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Krishnanagar Uttar is a safe seat for the BJP. The party had a lead of 53,551 votes over the TMC in this Assembly segment.

Krishnanagar Uttar Assembly Constituency is currently held by Abani Mohan Joardar of AITC. In the 2016 Assembly Elections, he beat Asim Kumar Saha of Congress. Mr Joardar got 44.14 percent of the votes.

Mr Roy is acknowledged as the party’s main strategist for the 2011 assembly polls that brought the Trinamool Congress to power in West Bengal, ending 34 years of Left Front rule.  He was standing beside Ms Banerjee during the Nandigram and Singur agitations.

Mr Roy’s exit from the Trinamool Congress ends a 20-year relationship with a party he had formed along with Mamata Banerjee on December 17, 1997, and where he remained a central figure. Until he fell out with Ms Banerjee, Roy was number two in the party with a wide range of roles.

In Delhi, he was the party’s face, having served in various parliamentary committees and as railways minister and MoS for shipping. In Bengal, where the vernacular media often described him as Mamata’s Chanakya, he was the party’s organisation man as well its chief poll strategist.

In April 2006, he was elected to Rajya Sabha and went on to be appointed a member of the Committee on Urban Development as well as of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In April 2008, he was appointed his party’s all-India general secretary; in May 2009, he became MoS (shipping). When Mamata resigned as railways minister after becoming chief minister, he was handed charge of railways.

“In every election, it was Roy who not only planned but executed the strategy. In 2014, particularly, Roy managed the poll from Trinamool Bhawan and the party was able to withstand the Modi wave; the BJP got only two seats out of 42 in Bengal,” a party veteran said.

On the other hand, TMC celebrity candidate Koushani Mukherjee joined the Trinamool Congress on January 24.

The Tollywood actress claimed that she needs to keep her personal life and her political beliefs apart.

“Mukul Roy has never won an election. We don’t consider him a heavyweight candidate, “she said.

She said that the people of West Bengal will put Mamata Banerjee in the Chief Minister’s seat for the third time.

“Didi has given me a responsibility and I will do all it takes to discharge it,” the actress said.

Kaushani remarked that the Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership would expel the ‘outsiders’ from Bengal.

Describing herself as “loud” and “outspoken”, Koushani said she is quite “opinionated” with inherent leadership traits.

The actress stated that she is a professional person who has a political philosophy and most importantly she’s not going to sell it to anyone.

She promised to solve all the problems of the people of Krishnanagar if she wins.

Born on May 17, 1992, Koushani mainly appears in Bengali films.  She debuted in the movie Parbona Ami Chartey Tokey in 2015, with Bonny Sengupta, directed by Raj Chakraborty.

In 2015, Mukherjee won Miss Beauty of Kolkata. She began her film career in 2015 with Raj Chakraborty’s movie Parbona Ami Chartey Tokey.  Koushani plays Aparna, a romantic interest in the movie.

In 2016, she appeared in Kelor Kirti, a romantic comedy directed by Raja Chanda. In Kelor Kirti, she plays a wealthy young woman, Anuskha, who falls in love with a journalist.

Koushani also appeared in various movies, like; “Girlfriend”, “Jaanbaaz”, “Jio Pagla”, “Tomake Chai”, “Hoichoi Unlimited”, “Jamai Badal” and so on.

In the year 2019 she was signed as the cover for FFACE Fashion Calendar. (UNI)