Popular Bengali actress Koel Mallick has been named the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate for the West Bengal Rajya Sabha by-election, just months after she entered Parliament as a Trinamool Congress nominee.
The BJP announced Mallick’s name on Sunday, 4 October. The by-election will be held on 16 October for the Rajya Sabha seat she vacated after resigning from the Upper House in July.
Mallick was nominated by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress earlier this year and took oath as a Rajya Sabha MP on 6 April. She resigned from the post on 16 July, after serving for just over three months.
Following her resignation, reports had already linked her with the BJP. She has now been formally named as the party’s candidate for the seat.
The actress, whose real name is Rukmini Mallick, is the daughter of veteran actor Ranjit Mallick. She holds a BSc degree in psychology and married Nispal Singh in 2013.
A prominent face of Bengali cinema, Mallick has now moved from a brief stint with the TMC to a fresh bid for the Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket.
