The local members of the Conservative Party have chosen a banker who once organised the private investment activities of Lord Rothschild as their replacement for Greg Clark as General Election candidate in Tunbridge Wells.

Neil Mahapatra is the son of two doctors and was brought up in the village of Leeds near Maidstone.

Neil Mahapatra (below) is now Managing Partner of Kingsley Capital Partners, an investment firm he established a decade ago, that “conceives of and builds new businesses from the ground up”.

He recently posted to Linkedin that he was “pleased to announce the £26m funding round for Zapgo,  an electric vehicle charging business building and operating rapid EV chargers at destination locations across the UK”.

Prior to Kingsley, Neil Mahapatra worked at J. Rothschild Capital Management. He also worked at Morgan Stanley investment banking from 2003 to 2006.

Five years ago he appeared in a podcast discussing the potential of cannabis-based medicinal drugs.

Neil Mahapatra has been active in the Conservative Party for over 20 years, including as a candidate in a previous General Election. He was leading the fundraising for the new Maidstone & Malling Conservative Association and Helen Grant’s re-election campaign.

At university, Neil Mahapatra was President of the Oxford Union debating society. He previously stood for parliament in 2010.

Neil Mahapatra was selected by 100 Conservative Party local members at a meeting in Paddock Wood on Saturday afternoon. A shortlist of 3 candidates had been provided by the central Conservative Party.

Neil Mahapatra was pictured (above) with Greg Clark on Saturday after his selection. Not selected were the Treasury adviser Simon Finkelstein and former Maidstone Borough Councillor, Louise Brice.

Earlier this week radio presenter Iain Dale declared he was hoping to make it on to the shortlist. But he pulled out of the race after the emergence of comments he made about Tunbridge Wells which suggested he didn’t like the place.

The other known parliamentary candidates for Tunbridge Wells so far are:

Green: John Hurst
Independent: Hassan Kassan
Labour: Hugo Pound
Liberal Democrat: Mike Martin
Reform UK: John Gager

Nominations close on Friday 7th June.