Celebrities take on Left Front veterans for Trinamool

Kolkata, April 26 (IANS) Actors Debashree Roy and Chiranjeet (Dipak) Chakroborty, theatre personality Bratya Basu... Leading Bengali actors and artistes have taken on ministers and veterans of West Bengal's ruling Left Front in assembly elections.

The Trinamool Congress has fielded a large number of prominent faces from the field of cinema and literature in the polls that is widely expected to jolt the Communists after three decades of uninterrupted power.

National Award winning actress Roy, who rose to fame with her role as Satyavati in B.R. Chopra's epic serial 'Mahabharat', has taken on Sports Minister Kanti Ganguly from the Raidighi in South 24 Parganas.

Roy's silver screen aura and popularity is pitted against 'workaholic' Ganguly.

Famous actor Chiranjeet (Dipak) Chakroborty is contesting from North 24 Parganas's Barasat constituency against Left candidate Sanjib Chatterjee.

Dum Dum will witness an eagerly-watched fight. Theatre personality and Trinamool's Bratya Basu faces Housing Minister and star Left campaigner Gautam Deb.

The constituency is hitting headlines every day after the minister challenged Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee to contest from the constituency.

'I am enough to defeat him. He will lose his deposit,' says a confident Basu.

Poet writer Joy Goswami, painter Jogen Choudhury, theatre personality Bhibas Chakroborty have campaigned in favour of Basu.

All three constituencies will go for balloting Wednesday.

The Trinamool bandwagon also comprises renowned singer Anup Ghoshal, who lent his voice to evergreen songs of Satyajit Ray's popular 'Goopy Bagha' series of films. He is up against Left candidate Sruthinath Praharaj from Hoogly district's Uttarpara constituency.

To woo the voters, he is singing songs from Ray's film -- and has promised to help upcoming singers of the area -- if he wins.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front, facing its stiffest electoral challenge since 1977, has not fielded any artist in the poll fray unlike in the previous years.

But it is banking on pro-Left intellectuals and artists who have stood by the party even in the worst times.

These include Left-minded thinkers like Buddhadeb Guha, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Samaresh Majumdar, all of who have voiced doubts about the Trinamool's ability to govern.

Several Bengali actors like Arindam Sil and Badshah Moitra have appealed to the people to vote the Left Front to power for the eighth time.

The assembly polls began April 18 and end May 10. The third phase and the fourth phases will be held April 27 and May 3. Votes will be counted May 13.