Kolkata, 7 Feb

Union minister Sukanta Majumdar met Bengali superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee on Saturday, triggering political speculations ahead of the assembly elections.

BJP leader Rudranil Ghosh, an actor by profession, accompanied Majumdar to Chatterjee's residence in south Kolkata.

Majumdar, the former state BJP president, said he met Chatterjee to congratulate him on receiving the Padma Shri award.

He presented the veteran actor with an idol of Lord Ram during the meeting.

Majumdar, the MoS for Education & Development of North Eastern Region, said discussions during the meeting largely centred around cinema.

"This meeting was absolutely non-political. It is better not to see politics in everything. Education and the film industry should be kept out of politics," he told reporters.

Chatterjee, often referred to as the "industry" for his slew of hits over four decades, has won two National Awards.

A large number of Bengali actors have joined politics over the last decade. With elections due to be announced in a few weeks, the meeting has triggered speculations about whether Chatterjee, who has largely stayed away from politics, will take the plunge.

His father, Biswajit Chatterjee, had joined the BJP in 2019 after contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in New Delhi on a TMC ticket.

Among the notable Bengali actors who have joined politics are TMC's Ghatal MPs Dev and Satabdi Roy, former MPs Nusrat Jahan, Moon Moon Sen and Mimi Chakraborty, TMC MLA Soham, BJP MLA Hiran Chatterjee, ex-MP Locket Chatterjee and Mithun Chakraborty.