MPs, ministers, economists, film stars - BJP fields big names for assembly polls

Members of parliament, Union ministers, economists, film stars and at least one famous technocrat – the BJP’s lists of candidates for the assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam contain several heavy-hitters.

At a press conference at its New Delhi headquarters on Sunday, the party released names of 112 candidates for Kerala, 20 for Tamil Nadu, 17 names for Assam and 63 candidates for the third and fourth phase of elections in West Bengal.

In West Bengal, where the BJP has launched a high-decibel campaign against Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, the party has fielded former chief economic adviser to the central government, Ashok Lahiri, from the Alipurduar seat, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Babul Supriyo from Tollygunge, and former journalist Swapan Dasgupta from Tarakeshwar.

Actor-turned-politician and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee, who will contest from Chunchura, is one of several film personalities to be nominated. Another MP, Nishit Parmanik, will stand from Dinhata.

A similar trend is visible in Kerala, where the BJP has fielded ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan from Palakkad and former Union minister KJ Alphons from Kanjirappally.

In Tamil Nadu, actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar is the BJP candidate from the Thousand Lights assembly seat. The BJP’s women cell chief, Vanathi Srinivasan, will take on film star Kamal Haasan in Coimbatore South.

In Assam, Hasinara Khatun has been fielded from Baghbar and Suman Haripriya from Hajo.