2014 Lok Sabha elections see a number of doctors in fray for polls

Flaunting party colours they coax the voters in the morning hours, but don the doctor's coat in the evening at chambers and clinics.

A number of medical practitioners are pitted as contenders in this edition of Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.

In Barasat, a couple of km away from Kolkata, Trinamool leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, also a gynaecologist, will fight against general physician Murtaza Hossen of the Left Front.

From Jhargram, Trinamool has pitted Uma Soren against Pulin Bihari Baske, a practioner at the Ramkrishna Mission Lok Siksha Parishad in Narendrapur.

Dastidar says while as physicians they were ever in the connect mode with the public, as politicians they are merely extending that role to serve people in another way.

"(And) If you look at our candidate list, we have representation from different sections of the society. That is our strength," she says.

Physician Kamre Elahi, the CPI(M)'s candidate from Birbhum, says in the morning he is busy canvassing for votes, he can't forsake daily duty as a physician.

In the evening hours he attends to patients.

"Politics and medical field are two separate jobs. I don't mix the two. As a doctor, it is my duty to treat patients irrespective of any political colours," Elahi says.