‘Nusrat Jahan Missing’: Posters Surface In Actor And Trinamool MP’s Constituency

While it is not clear as to who put up the ‘Nusrat Jahan missing’ posters, some of these had ‘Trinamool workers’ as the undersigned, and others had ‘general public’ and ‘deceived people’ written at the bottom.

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP Nusrat Jahan is apparently “missing”, according to some posters that came up across Chapatala and Keyadanga areas of Basirhat, the Lok Sabha constituency represented by the actor-turned-politician. While her party members have brought down the posters, some TMC members reportedly admitted that they surfaced because the MP had not been seen in the area for a long time now, Bengali media reports said.

While the local leadership did not comment on who put up the posters, some of these had “Trinamool workers” as the undersigned, and others had “general public” and “deceived people” written at the bottom.

Quoting local sources, Anandabazaar Patrika reported that the posters were put up at night and that many villagers agreed with what was written on them. One villager was quoted as saying that they have not seen Nusrat in the village since the last elections, even as the next Parliamentary polls are two years away.

A section of TMC leaders said the incident was an expression of anger of the local residents towards the MP. “Haji Nurul Islam was the MP of Basirhat from 2009 to 2014. He worked on the development of the area and was always there among the people and the local Trinamool members. But the present Trinamool MP is never available. This is probably why the local people put up the posters,” Humayun Reza Chowdhury, local panchayat head, told Pratidin newspaper. He also said that the posters were torn down by party workers after they came to know about them.

Opposition parties have also responded to the issue with sharp comments. 

“The MP is on TikTok and the cinema screen. She should come out and work for the people. Actually, she has lost her existence in the Trinamool," Palash Sarkar, president of the Basirhat Yuva Morcha, was quoted as saying in the Anandabazar report.

"People who voted for Nusrat Jahan have been deceived. No development work has been done in the area. People never saw her. That’s why they are putting up posters, expressing their anger,” Imtiaz Hossain, CPI(M) North 24 Parganas District Committee member, was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool leadership said the posters were the handiwork of the opposition, who are making an issue out of this because “they have no other issues to raise”. They said Nusrat Jahan is in regular contact with the local leadership and has also done work towards the development of the area. “I have heard about this (the posters). What happened, and whoever did it, was wrong,” Trinamool Chapatala region president Abdul Razzak was quoted as saying in the Pratidin report.