Ghatal (West Bengal) [India], May 2 : Bengali superstar Dev, filed his nomination from Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday and announced a novel initiative of planting an equal number of trees as the number of votes he will win from his seat.
Speaking to the media after filing his nomination, Deepak Adhikari, popularly known as Dev said that he chose to donate blood in the morning instead of visiting a temple.
"Instead of going to a temple I chose to donate blood. In this heat, the situation of blood banks is poor, since blood donation drives are not being held regularly. It is our duty to donate blood so that thalassemia patients can survive," he said.
Speaking about his green initiative, Dev said, "I have also thought of another initiative. It is not enough to fight elections keeping the Ghatal master plan at front. The way we are affected by global warming, I have decided to plant as many trees as the number of votes I get. This is a simple contribution that does not take much time."
"A public representative's job is to safeguard all people in his constituency. If I plant 800,000 trees, not all of them will survive. Even if can save 40 per cent of the trees, it will be a big step," he added.
Dev is seeking re-election from Ghatal for the third consecutive term. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded another Bengali actor, Hiran Chatterjee to breach Dev's fortress.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) backed by the Congress has fielded Tapan Ganguly from Ghatal.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Dev defeated BJP's Bharati Ghosh by a margin of 1,07,973 votes.