Kolkata, March 2 After the BJP on Saturday named Soumendu Adhikari, the younger brother of leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, as the party candidate from the Kanthi Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal, the latter said that it his responsibility to secure party candidates' victory in all the 42 constituencies in the state.
"My brother has been selected as a candidate based on his merits. As the leader of opposition, my duty is to go all-out to ensure the victory of my party candidates in all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, not just my brother's,” Adhikari said after the BJP released its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming general elections on Saturday.
However, political observers feel that in both the Lok Sabha constituencies in East Midnapore district, Kanthi and Tamluk, the battle will be more between 'Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari', rather than between the 'Trinamool Congress and the BJP'.
The sitting Trinamool MP from Kanthi is Suvendu’s father Sisir Adhikari. Suvendu's another younger brother Dibyendu Adhikari is the sitting Trinamool MP from Tamluk.
The leader of opposition was himself a Trinamool MP from Tamluk twice. There is a strong possibility that the BJP will field Dibyendu Adhikari as its candidate from Tamluk this time.
Political observers feel that for a long time, Trinamool's watertight organisational base in East Midnapore district was totally Adhikari-family centric.
“Even the Chief Minister herself gave an absolute freehand to the Adhikari family, especially Suvendu Adhikari, as regards to taking organisational and administrative decisions in the district. After Suvendu joined the BJP before the 2021 Assembly polls, the battle shifted to Nandigram in the same district, where Mamata Banerjee contested against Suvendu.
"After Suvendu won the elections, Mamata Banerjee had to get herself elected in a by-election to retain her chair as the Chief Minister. So this time as well, it will be ‘Mamata Banerjee versus Suvendu Adhikari’ in the two Lok Sabha constituencies in East Midnapore district,” said a city-based political observer.
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