New Delhi: Call it an attempt to confuse voters or sheer coincidence, but scores of candidates in fray in several Lok Sabha seats share common names or surnames.
In Vadodara, Independent candidate Narendra Babulal Modi has joined the fray against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
The ‘Delhi West’ seat in the national capital, where polling was held on April 10, saw three Jarnail Singhs in the race — one of Aam Aadmi Party and two Independents.
In Bihar’s Banka seat, the CPI and BSP candidates share the same name — Sanjay Kumar.
In Uttar Pradesh, which has a maximum of 80 LS seats among all states, BJP’s Hema Malini has a namesake — an Independent candidate — in the contest in Mathura.
Three K Sudhakarans are in the fray — one from Congress and two Independents — in the Kannur seat in Kerala.
In Punjab’s Bhatinda seat, Congress’s Manpreet Singh has a namesake who is contesting as an Independent.
In other seats, there are candidates sharing first names or surnames. Kuldeep Bishnoi of Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) is contesting against seven Kuldeeps in Haryana’s Hisar constituency.
In the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat of the state, two Satpals are contesting as Independents.
In Bihar’s Samastipur, the BSP candidate is Ram Chandar Ram while the Lok Janshakti Party’s (LJP) nominee is Ram Chandra Paswan.
In the Karakat Lok Sabha seat, two Independents Bhairaw Dayal Singh and Ram Dayal Singh are slugging it out at the hustings.
In Gujarat’s Bardoli, CPI has fielded one Ravaliben Shankarbhai Chaudhari as its candidate while the nominee for a party ‘Hindusthan Nirman Dal’ from the same seat is Reniyabhai Shankarbhai Chaudhari.
In Karnataka’s Kolar, the BJP candidate is E N Narayanaswamy while there are three Independents — Narayanaswamy M, S Narayanaswamy and H N Narayanswamy.
In Kerala, the Kasargod seat has three Karunakarans — P Karunakaran of CPI-M and two Independents Karunakaran K and Karunakaran P.
In the Wayanad parliamentary seat, the CPI candidate is Sathyan Mokeri while two Independent candidates are named Sathyan T and Sathyan P.
In Kozhikode, the CPI (M) candidate is A Vijayaraghavan while there are two Independents — M Vijayaraghavan and K Vijayaraghavan.
In the Ponnai Lok Sabha seat, there are two Abdurahmans and two Abdurahimans while in Alathur, three Bijus are contesting as Independents.
Madhya Pradesh also has such candidates. In the Damoh Parliamentary seat there are three Prahlads.
In, Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga, where Congress leader P Chidambaram’s son Karti is the Congress candidate, two Rajas are in the fray — Raja A of BJP and Independent Raja H. (IANS)