Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Mamata Banerjee has fielded Moon Moon Sen from Bankura in West Bengal.
Who would ever have thought that she would be designated giant slayer for the second time?
But she has.
Moon Moon Sen, actor with extraordinary oomph in her heyday and now a Trinamool Congress lawmaker from West Bengal's Bankura, has just been deployed in Asansol against BJP's big gun - singer and union minister Babul Supriyo.
Away in Mumbai with her star daughter Raima, Moon Moon could not be contacted till late evening. But her family said she is delighted.
Said Moon Moon's husband Bharat Dev Varma when contacted: "She is delighted."
But Babul Supriyo appeared undaunted in his response.
West Bengal votes in all the seven phases in this year's nation polls starting on April 11. Results will be declared on May 23.
Moon Moon Sen will have a fight on her hands. Babul Supriyo, the minister of state for heavy industries, is one of two BJP lawmakers in Bengal who won in 2014. He had won then by a margin of over 60,000 votes, defeating a formidable Trinamool opponent, Dola Sen, a trade union leader close to Mamata Banerjee.
Moon Moon Sen's entry into politics was unexpected and triggered by tragedy. When her mother, the legendary Bengali actor Suchitra Sen, passed away in January 2014, Mamata Banerjee helped her keep her mother's request for complete privacy. Suchitra Sen's last rites were performed within five and half hours after her death, her coffin in flower-decked hearse with dark-tinted glass.
"How could I say no to her when she asked me to stand from Bankura," Moon Moon Sen had said back in 2014 before hitting the dusty campaign trail. She was stunned when the results came out.
She had defeated the nine-term CPM lawmaker from Bankura, Basudev Acharjee, by one lakh votes.
The rest is history.
The question is, will she make history at Asansol again.
The BJP will throw its might behind Babul Supriyo in this election. Party chief Amit Shah has set a target of 23 of Bengal's 42 seats. The Darjeeling seat is problematic with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's ruling faction having switched sides from the BJP to the Trinamool entirely.
Therefore, for the BJP, every seat in Bengal is going to count.