TMC Candidate June Malia: An Actress, Single Mother, A Politician And A Philanthropist

June Malia, the actor turned politician, is a philanthropist and also a member of West Bengal Women’s Commission. Malia has been a sitting Legislative Assembly member since 2021 from the Medinipur constituency, in which she defeated BJP candidate Shamit Das. Now, she has been nominated by the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held on May 25, 2024 in the constituency.

After the announcement of her name to run for the election, a word of war has been erupted between the BJP MP Dilip Ghosh and June Malia where he attacked the TMC candidate with a slap threat during a public meeting. Malia after initiating the electoral campaign in the constituency has demanded a report card from Dilip Ghosh, the sitting BJP MP, on fulfilling people’s aspirations in Medinipur.

There has been an old connection of controversies with the politicians, and June Malia was also not spared. June Malia was targeted by her party fellows in the past when she was alleged by TMC leader Srikanta Mahat for looting money from the party. She also irked a controversy in the past as she tried to enter a polling booth breaking the election rules.

What do the numbers say about the constituency?

Medinipur constituency has emerged as a stronghold of TMC in the last state assembly elections. Out of the seven assembly seats 6 are occupied by Trinamool Congress MLAs. However, from the 1980s till 2014, the constituency was represented by CPI in the state. Whereas in the 2019 general elections, BJP won the elections showing an outstanding electoral performance by securing nearly 34 percent additional votes in comparison to 2014.

Medinipur is a general category seat with a significant SC, ST, and Muslim population which is 18.28%, 21.53%, and 19.4% respectively. The constituency has a majority of rural population with 96.81% and 3.19% rural and urban population respectively. In the last parliamentary elections, the total number of voters turned out to be around 87.6%. While considering the socio-economic figures of the constituency a satisfactory picture emerges on some fronts however developmental gaps still exist. The area occupied under the constituency reflects a sex ratio of 966 (females for every 1000 males). The region receives funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF). The literacy rate is around 78%.