LS Polls: BJP fields Suvendu's brother Soumendu Adhikari from seat held by their father

Kolkata, March 2 (IANS) With the BJP on Saturday announcing its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, including 20 for the 42 seats in West Bengal, there was no major surprise in the nominees named for the eastern state. 

Though speculation was rife for some time now, the BJP list on Saturday officially confirmed the candidature of Soumendu Adhikari, the younger brother of leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, from Kanthi in East Midnapore district, where their father Sisir Adhikari is the sitting Trinamool Congress MP.

Soumendu Adhikari is the former chairman of the Kanthi Municipal Corporation. Another younger brother of Suvendu Adhikari, Dibyendu Adhikari, is the sitting Trinamool MP from the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency.

There is widespread speculation that Dibyendu Adhikari will contest on a BJP ticket this time from Tamluk, the candidate for which was not announced by the party on Saturday.

A minor surprise in the list was the choice of actor-turned-politician Hiranmoy Chattopadhyay as the party nominee from Ghatal in West Midnapore district. Chattopadhyay is currently the sitting BJP legislator from the Kharagpur-Sadar constituency in the same district.

Now, Ghatal is all set to witness a clash of two cinestars, as actor-turned-politician Dipak Adhikari a.k.a. Dev is the sitting Trinamool MP from the constituency, who is likely to be renominated.

Political observers feel that the factor to watch out for will be BJP’s choice of candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency, where a 'son of the hills' wave has become the talking point among all the political parties. 

It is to be seen whether the BJP renominates its sitting MP Raju Singh Bista, who is not a native of the hills, or follow the 'son of the hills' theory.

--IANS

src/arm