Ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections, a host of Bengali film stars joined the BJP on 17th February. An announcement of their joining the party was made in a hotel in Calcutta. Those who joined the saffron party are actors Yash Dasgupta, Soumili Ghosh Biswas, Papiya Adhikari, Minakshi Ghosh, Sutapa Mukherjee, Tramila Bhattacharya and Mallika Banerjee, director Raj Mukherjee, producer-director Atanu Roy and music director Subhayu Bedoggo.
Meanwhile, actor-politician Chiranjeet Chakraborty has expressed his desire to quit active politics. He has been wanting to quit since long but did not do so as chief minister Mamata Banerjee invariably asked him to continue. He continued, contested and won twice. This time, he is once again waiting for her to revert on his request to be allowed to quit active politics.