Salt Lake has fielded several residents in the Assembly election. While the others are seasoned politicians, Labony Estate girl Sayantika Banerjee is a debutante. Till the other day, she was shaking a leg and delivering dialogues on the big screen with the likes of Prosenjit and Jeet. Now she is awaiting her fate in the ballot box as the Trinamul Congress candidate from Bankura.

“I was a political science student but never did I imagine I would be in politics,” smiles the 34-year-old who has starred in films like Awara, Kelor Kirti, Power and Abhiman. She has campaigned before in elections but being named a candidate this time meant a far heavier workload. “Whole of India is following this election.It is a big responsibility,” she says. Her link with the districts is the open-air macha shows. “We are on the road from September to March, which is the season. Induction oven, pillow and bed sheet stay packed in the car. In fact, I had performed in a show at Mejia Book Fair in Bankura barely two weeks before my name featured on the nomination list,” she says.

Since her constituency went to polls on April 1, she had little time. “I camped there from March 12, putting up in a hotel for the first two days and then renting an apartment.” But she experienced a high even before stepping on the turf. “I saw a picture of my name being painted in wall graffiti. I posted it in social media, with the message: ‘Bankura, here I come’.”

Once she reached, armed with “loads of sunscreen and ORS”, her dress code changed from jeans and T-shirt to cotton kurti and handloom sari. But she says it had nothing to do with trying to look her part. “The name of the character I played was Sayantika, so I had to be myself. I am comfortable in sari and white was a natural choice in the heat. There was a dry loo blowing.” She did not focus as much on make-up as she would during the shows. “It is true that they know me as a film star, so I had to check if the eye liner was in place before I got off the car. But after that, I could not keep the distance that we maintain when we appear in shows. I had to mingle and make eye contact, so I would keep my shades up above the forehead,” she says. Requests came in “hundreds of dozens” for selfies. “I would tell them: ‘Support-o kintu korte hobe’.”

The early mornings were reserved for the rural panchayat areas while in the afternoon, she campaigned in the town. “We used to lunch at the local panchayat chief’s house. The vegetables and the fish were so fresh that the food tasted amazing. It helped that I love posto as much as the people of Bankura. They pampered me further by arranging for cold water, sometimes diluted with glucose.”

A helicopter ride she took for campaigning was not novel — “I rode one in my childhood and again in Malaysia during the shooting of Awara” — but this was the first time that she got on a toto. “They opened the cover and I could stand and greet people.” Sometimes, she drove the campaign jeep herself on the way to a spot. “That made me so happy,” she laughs.

Sayantika with father Guru Prasad Banerjee of Guru’s Dream Gym after casting her vote in Labony School on April 17 Sourced by the correspondent

Sayantika also has a two-wheeler licence and rides a Bullet. “Baba had a Royal Enfield too in his service life,” says the daughter of Guru Prasad Banerjee, the governor’s chief security officer for 35 years. His bike, on which he did pilot duty and which he had modified with visor glass, fog lights etc, has been preserved at the Police Museum on his retirement. People of Salt Lake know the handsome 6.4ft man best for Guru’s Dream Gym and as consultant to several gyms across the city. “My fitness addiction comes from him. As a child, I used to go to the gym at the BF Block swimming pool, where my father consulted, to do yoga. Even now, I carried dumb bells, skipping rope, yoga mat, resistance band and kickboxing pads with me to Bankura,” she says.

Though Sayantika spends most of her time in her Tollygunge flat now, she comes once a week. “My vote is still at our Labony School booth. I spent my childhood chatting perched on the housing wall. A neighbourhood uncle commented on my contesting and asked: ‘Ebar ki madam bolbo’?”

She does not think contesting from Bidhannagar would have given her an edge. “I may be born and brought up here but I am as unaware of the local political issues as I was at Bankura. So I’d have had to learn from scratch either way.”

Asked about fingers being pointed at the elections for the Covid surge, she admits gatherings had happened. “I had to move without a mask as people wanted to see me. My parents were very worried. But there was hardly any infection in Bankura in end-March. Rather, they were at risk from us. I used to get Covid tests done periodically. Wish the polling did not drag on over so many phases,” reflects Sayantika as she sets off for Bankura.

“I will be at the counting hall from the morning,” she signs off.