24 hours on, Trinamool’s Mimi, Nusrat make debut intervention in Lok Sabha

Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan Ruhi, the two actor turned politicians who had taken oath as Lok Sabha members on Tuesday, have hit the ground running. Just about 24 hours later, the two MPs, who have earned a celebrity status on social media and beyond, made their maiden intervention in parliament.

Mimi Chakraborty, the Trinamool Congress MP from Jadavpur flagged a long pending demand for a flyover. Her party colleague and friend Nusrat Jahan Ruhi wanted a central school for her largely ‘backward’ constituency, Basirhat.

Mimi started today by thanking the speaker for “the opportunity to speak” and sought ‘blessings from all…for her first speech’ before drawing attention of the house to the discomfort faced by people from her constituency.

“It has been a long demand of people of my constituency Jadavpur for the construction of a flyover at Champahati railway station which is in Baruipur east, but in the past year no initiative has been taken on the project. …Over a lakh of people still face unusual traffic congestion because of the existing railway level crossing. It is more painful when a patient suffers delays in getting treatment and students reach the school late.” Mimi said while occasionally referring to the note she held in her hand.

Mimi went on to say that Sonarpur in Bidyadharpur in Sealdah division of Eastern Railway had “a similar problem” before asking “the government to take immediate steps and start the project urgently, without any further delay.”

Nusrat Jahan also thanked the speaker and added that she ‘felt honoured’ for the opportunity to speak for the first time on “a matter of urgent public importance.”

“There is no doubt that Kendrivya Vidyalayas are playing a pivotal role in imparting quality education in the country with uniform curriculum and the performance of the schools are really appreciable. I request the government to kindly expedite setting up a Kendriya Vidyalaya in my Basirhat parliamentary constituency.

She went on to put the demographics of her constituency on record to support her argument, “...entire part of my constituency is backward with 86.81% of rural people and 13.19 of urban population. The SC and ST ratio is 25.34% and 6.56% respectively. People cannot afford to send their children to public schools because of their minimal income,” she said.

Eyebrows were raised initially after both Bengali actors were nominated as TMC candidates. They were even trolled on social media last month for posing in western outfits outside Parliament.

Under constant media glare, they were nearly mobbed by journalists yesterday after they took oath as MPs. Their act of touching LS Speaker Om Birla’s feet after taking oath had also not gone unnoticed.