Nine constituencies from West Bengal are going to the polls on April 30 in the seventh phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2014. These include Howrah, Hooghly, Serampore, Bolpur, Arambagh, Burdwan East, Burdwan-Durgapur, Birbhum and Uluberia.
Among the 87 contestants in the fray, the prominent ones are music director Bappi Lahiri, journalist-turned politician Chandan Mitra and actor George Baker from the BJP, the Trinamool Congress' sitting MPs Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee Sultan Ahmed and former India soccer player Prasun Banerjee, and Congress candidate Abdul Mannan, among others. There are also 13 women contestants in the elections.
#01. Iswar Chandra Das (CPM)
Iswar Chandra Das is the Left Front nominated CPI(M) candidate for the 38–Burdwan East (SC) Parliamentary constituency. He passed his Masters Degrees in History and Political Science. Now in his mid-fifties, he has come from an SC family and belongs to the tanner community. Das got his membership of the CPI(M) in 1981. He is now the member of the Katwa Zonal Committee of CPI(M). He is the leading face of the peasants’ movement, and a member of the peasants’ council of the Bardhaman district. He was motivated by the Leftist ideology from his student days, and devoted himself to organising students under the flag of independence-democracy-socialism. He was member of the Bardhaman district committee of the SFI. He also participated in the youths’ movements. He was the vice-president of the Bardhaman district committee of DYFI and also was the state committee member. Das is a teacher by profession, and a well-known performer. As an actor, he takes part in theatres and jatras.
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#02. Bappi Lahiri (BJP)
Popular music composer Bappi Lahiri is to contest the Lok Sabha polls on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket from the Sreerampur parliamentary constituency in West Bengal. Accompanied by his son, daughter and son-in-law, Lahiri filed his papers for the seat, which comprises parts of Hooghly and Howrah districts. The effervescent 61-year-old music composer has promised to bring in Bollywood superstar Salman Khan and melody queens Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle to boost his campaign.
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#03. Chandan Mitra (BJP)
Chandan Mitra, 58, grew up in Hooghly and Kolkata, went to college in Delhi and Oxford, and started his career as a journalist with daily newspapers. In his younger days, Mitra worked for the Janta Party, became involved with leftist movements, helped manage Shashi Tharoor’s campaign for college elections and briefly joined the Labour Party in England. He eventually became a member of the BJP and has served two terms as a Rajya Sabha MP for the party. He has also continued his work as a journalist and editor, buying control of The Pioneer in 1998. In the upcoming elections Mitra will contest for a Lok Sabha seat for the first time, from his hometown of Hooghly.
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#04. George Baker (BJP)
George Baker a veteran Bengali film actor became an instant celebrity after the Assamese production Chameli Memsaab got National Awards and box-office success. In 2014, the now 68-year-old man debuts in electoral politics. Affectionately addressed as 'Baker sahab' by many, the light-skinned actor famous for portraying British and European characters in Assamese and Bengali cinema, is contesting as a BJP candidate from the Howrah Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal.
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#05. Abdul Mannan (Congress)
Abdul Mannan Hossain is a member of the 15th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the Murshidabad constituency of West Bengal and is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) political party.
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Here are some of the other key contenders:
* Kalyan Banerjee (AITC)
* Satabdi Roy (AITC)
* Joy Banerjee (BJP)
* Tapan Kumar Saha (Congress)
* Mukul Biswas (BSP)
* Pritam Ghosh (Congress)
Also Read: Actor George Baker hopes for encore in West Bengal poll arena
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