Soumendu Adhikari The New BJP Face With Political Experience From Kanthi

BJP listed Soumendu Adhikari as its party candidate to run for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Kanthi Lok Sabha seat. In its first list, BJP fielded only 20 candidates for the 42 seats in West Bengal.

Soumendu Adhikari belongs to a political background. He is the younger brother of Souvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition (BJP) in the West Bengal Assembly. Whereupon, his father Sisir Adhikar is the sitting Trinamool Congress MP. His younger brother Dibyendu Adhikari is also the sitting Trinamool MP from the Tamluk constituency. Soumendu Adhikari was a former chairman of the Kanthi Municipal Corporation from 2010 till 2020. He was removed from the post by the state government, which he challenged in the Calcutta High Court.

Soumendu Adhikari joined BJP in January 2021 and has been the secretary of BJP’s Kanthi organizational committee. In 2021, an FIR was filed against Soumendu and his elder brother Suvendhu Adhikari for allegedly stealing relief material worth several lakhs from the Kanthi municipality office in the Purba Medinipur district. Several other cases were also filed against him in connection with alleged irregularities in the functioning of the local municipality before 2021 and Kanthi’s Rangamati crematorium corruption. He was also accused of involvement in the Sarada Scam. Nonetheless, he got legal protection from the High Court and Supreme Court in these allegations’ charges.

BJP fielded Soumendu Adhikari, however, earlier speculations were that the party would nominate Souvendu Adhikari from Kanthi. Earlier, there were reports of discontent against the BJP, when it did not give the ticket to Soumendu Adhikari for the municipal poll in Kanthi, as it was the first time that Kanthi Municipality was not having any member from the Adhikari family in the last three years. In the 2021, state poll, he took a swipe on TMC and described TMC as a private limited company.

Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) announced its candidates for all the West Bengal constituencies closing the door for Congress to have an alliance in the state. The announcement was made by Ms Banerjee in a mammoth rally organised in Kolkata ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The list features Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, expelled MP Mahua Moitra, former cricketer Kirti Azad, actors Shatrughan Sinha, Dev, Shatabdi Roy among others.