Bengali film actor Rukmini Mallick, popularly known as Koyel Mallick, joined the BJP on Monday, a day after the party nominated her for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
Mallick, daughter of veteran Bengali actor Ranjit Mallick, had a brief stint as a Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP from April 6 to July 16. She resigned after the Mamata Banerjee-led party’s electoral setback in the West Bengal Assembly elections.
Welcoming Mallick into the BJP, the party’s West Bengal general secretary Sashi Agnihotri said the actor would file her nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat on Monday.
“It would be an honour for me to become a member of the Upper House of Parliament and get a chance to work for the welfare of the people,” Mallick told reporters at the BJP state headquarters.
The actor-turned-politician said she wanted to be part of the development initiatives undertaken by the first BJP government in West Bengal. She also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari for selecting her for the Rajya Sabha nomination.
Elections to 12 Rajya Sabha seats across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal will be held on October 16. The BJP has a clear majority in the West Bengal Assembly.
Asked about criticism over her decision to leave the TMC and join the BJP, Mallick said such comments could stem from the critics’ own “vexations”.
“They are making such rude comments possibly because of their own vexations. I have no anger against them,” she said.
Mallick said the new government was taking initiatives aimed at retaining talent in Bengal and preventing people from leaving the state, adding that she wanted to contribute to those efforts.
“The root cause of increasing toxicity on social media is lack of work among the people,” she said.
Asked whether joining the TMC had been a wrong decision given her brief stint with the party, Mallick said political parties had different ways of functioning and working for people.
“Every party has its own ways of working and doing good. I feel enormously proud and privileged that I am now in a party which has undertaken welfare works for people in West Bengal in the past few months,” she said.
(With inputs from PTI)