Former Indian soccer captain Bhaichung Bhutia and senior BJP leader Surinder Singh Ahluwalia were among the prominent candidates to enter the poll fray today.
Both Bhutia and Ahluwalia are contesting from West Bengal's Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency as Trinamool Congress and the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha-backed BJP nominees respectively.
The Election Commission office here said Bhutia and Ahluwalia were among the 18 candidates who filed their nominations in four parliamentary constituencies today for the first phase of polls in West Bengal on April 17.
Of the 18 candidates who filed their nominations were three TMC nominees, four of the Congress, three of the BJP and the rest from other registered parties and Independents.
With this, the total number of nominations filed for these four Lok Sabha seats - Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling rose to 29 so far.
The last day of filing nominations for the first phase is March 26.
Congress nominee Sujoy Ghatak also filed nomination for the Darjeeling seat today.
Bhutia is pitted against Ahluwalia, CPI(M) nominee Saman Pathak and Congress' Sujoy Ghatak.
BJP's Jaswant Singh had won the seat in 2009 with GJM support.
