How TMC MP Shatabdi Roy beat Torrents for Bengal's love. And votes.

There could be highly dramatic reasons on as to why people should vote this year. To have tea homemade at Modi mansion (send a ‘mitron’ request to him on FB to try your luck), to play scrabble with Rahul Gandhi (of course you’ll win after Rahul Gandhi has formed ‘system’ on the board), to play karaoke with Arvind Kejriwal (I suspect, if Kejriwal’s cap could sing, even that would do a better job of singing). But Team Mamata Banerjee beats your wildest Bigg Boss-fueled imagination hands down. Take for example, MP Satabdi Roy from West Bengal. Once upon a time (really, very long ago), the 45-year-old actor-turned-politician from West Bengal was to Bengali films what a Honey Singh song might mean to a hypothetical film starring Tusshar Kapoor and Jackie Bhagnani on this day. She would be the only reason why thousands of gawkers in rural Bengal would troop into theatres to watch inane Bengali films with even more inane names - Sukh Dukkher Sonsar (Happy, Sad, Household would be the least dramatic, closest translation), Didi Amar Maa (My Sister is my Mother), Kolonkini Bodhu (Tainted Bride), Gunda and Gariber Raja Robinhood being the more entertaining titles she starred in. [caption id=“attachment_1441123” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shatabdi Roy with Mamata Banerjee. Image courtesy: Facebook.[/caption] With the Mamata wave rippling across Bengal, Roy was elected as an MP from Birbhum. Though not much is known about her accomplishments in the district, a heartwarming revelation has been made in the run-up to the next polls. People in Birbhum have been watching all her films and jatra (rural theatre productions) for free. In a video that has been doing the rounds of Facebook, Roy is seen cheerfully addressing a crowd and saying, “In the past five years, you have been watching my films for free. You go to theatres to watch my films, do you have to pay? You attend all my theatre shows and cultural programmes, do you have to pay? Have I asked for money? No. I am asking for votes. To watch me for free, you have to vote for me. Otherwise, you have to pay and watch,” she says. Given the squall of happy voices in the video, there is enough reason to suspect that she might win again. Meanwhile, I will live on the hope Didi manages to clinch Ranbir Kapoor for Trinamool someday and he loyally follows Satabdi Roy’s footsteps. Actually if that happens, you might also see a Modi-Rahul selfie that Meenakshi Lekhi goes and likes on Manish Tewari’s Facebook wall.