BJP’s Bengal president of Mahila Morch, Roopa Ganguly has been nominated to fill the post in Rajya Sabha vacated by cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who resigned earlier this year. The 49 year old actor turned Politian climbed the ladder in the party fast and became the state president of Mahila Morcha few months ago.

Ganguly, a national award winning actress is known to people more for her role as “Draupadi’ in Mahabharat. In Bengal, people had witnessed that fiery image of the leader before the elections. She rushed to several political flash points in the state in last few months and it increased BJP’s visibility in social space. Beside Mahabharat, Ganguly has done several Bengali and Hindi films including Bahar Ane Tak and Saugandh. She was last seen in Ranbir Kapoor starrer Barfi.

In April, the government had nominated Subramanian Swamy, Narendra Jadhav, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Suresh Gopi, Swapan Dasgupta and Mary Kom as the new Rajya Sabha members.

The government had also nominated Pranav Pandya, the head of All World Gayatri Pariwar, as Rajya Sabha member in May but he declined it. In his place, the government then nominated Sambhaji Raje, a descendant of Shivaji, to the Rajya Sabha in June.

Sidhu had resigned from the Rajya Sabha in July, about three months after his nomination, and had formed a new front Aawaaz-e-Punjab.