Actor Papiya Adhikari joins the BJP and contests 2021 Bengal election

Papiya Adhikari, an actor known in Bengali films and television, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's ruling national party, in 2021. Her move came in the run-up to the West Bengal Assembly election, in which the BJP was mounting its strongest-ever challenge to the state's governing Trinamool Congress.

The party fielded her as a candidate in the 2021 election, part of a wider effort to bring film and television personalities into its campaign in the state. She lost her contest, as the Trinamool Congress won the election and returned to power for a third consecutive term, although the BJP became the main opposition party in the Assembly.

Her entry into politics is the background to later coverage of her public statements. When a Bengal BJP legislator's remarks about firecrackers and health drew attention and online reaction, her political journey from the screen to the party became part of the story's context for readers following it.