Father and son, twin brothers, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nephew-uncle and even husband and wife are pitted against each other for this year’s Panchayat elections in West Bengal.

East Burdwan and Bankura have recorded at least a dozen such candidates, if not more. Their political rivalry entered their homes.

“In rural polls, this is the beauty of democracy. We must accept this as both a challenging and interesting scenario,” said Pradip Majumdar, state Panchayat Minister.

Kalipada Mahato, a brick field labourer of Sindurpur village in Bankura, is a diehard Communist and now has been struggling hard against an uneven bounce that he’s received at home. His son Mahitosh, a vest factory worker, was nominated as a BJP candidate for Rajakara seat of Ranibandh Panchayat Samiti against him.

A helpless Kalipada murmured: “It’s my fault that I failed to give proper political grooming to my son.”

Mahitosh said: “Left won’t pay. So, I chose BJP.”

At Panberia village in Susunia Panchayat in Kalna, TMC has fielded Tanmoy Banerjee for Zilla Parishad’s seat No: 16 and Tanmoy’s father-in-law Sitangshusekhar of Susunia village has been contesting as a CPI-M candidate for Gram Panchayat’s seat No:3.

At Selimpur in Kanksa in Burdwan, twin brothers, Bhutnath Bauri and Subol Bauri, have shared their wall for poll graffiti. Bhutnath is a BJP candidate against Subol – a CPI-M candidate for seat No: 24 of the Amlajora Panchayat.

Sisters-in-law Padmavati Panda and Supriya Panda of Kadma village have unleashed fight against each other in this year’s Panchayat Election. Padmavati is a BJP candidate against Supriya of Trinamul Congress for the seat No: 66 of the Harmasra Panchayat in Bankura. At booth No: 174 of Hathobindapur Panchayat in Burdwan, two sisters-in-law Renuka Mallik and Aparna Mallik residing at Zarul village have shared CPI-M and TMC tickets and are now in loggerhead.

Similarly, at Singi Panchayat in Katwa-2 block , Rumana Begum has been nominated by the TMC and her sister-in-law Manija Mallik who’d won in 2013 polls has further been pitched by the CPI-M against Rumana.

Prasanta Pal of Bijoynagar in Sudpur Panchayat in Katwa is a TMC candidate and is unleashed to fight against his brother-in-law Debashis Mondal – a BJP candidate in the seat. Sharmistha Ghosh – the sitting member of Rayan Panchayat in Burdwan-1 block has been re-nominated by the TMC. The BJP, this time has fielded her brother-in-law Udayshankar Ghosh, which has become a point of debate in the family.

Sharmistha said: “Uday needed to step down as he knows well that I’m a sitting member.”

Uday replied: “I’m loyal to my party. I’d have nothing to do if they nominated me.”

Monteswar in Kalna has been witnessing a colourful scene as one Bilas Rudra has been nominated by the Congress party in seat No: 11 of Susunia GP and his wife Priyanka has been assigned to contest as a TMC candidate for seat No: 13. Another couple Gaffar Mallik and Dalia of Bohar in Memari are however facing no difficulty as the TMC nominated both of them for GP and ZP seats. The BJP too has fielded a couple – Shibakrishna Ghosh and Barnsli Ghosh for seat No: 6 in Dogachhia GP and seat No: 16 of Purbasthali-1 Panchayat Samiti respectively.