Lok Sabha polls 2019: BJP fields SS Ahluwalia from Burdwan-Durgapur seat

The BJP Sunday announced SS Ahluwalia as its candidate from the Durgapur Lok Sabha seat of West Bengal. In the current Lok Sabha, the 67-year-old represents the Darjeeling seat in the same state.

“I'm grateful to Waheguru & thankful to the Party, Shri Narendra Modiji & Shri Amit Shahji for reposing faith in me yet again & nominating me to contest Lok Sabha from Bardhaman-Durgapur, an area I spent most of my youth in. I look fwd to serving the people of Bardhaman and Durgapur,” Ahluwalia wrote on Twitter.

According to sources in the party, BJP’s electoral ally in the Darjeeling hills - Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) led by party chief Bimal Gurung had objected to Ahluwalia’s candidature being announced from the Darjeeling seat.

Sources in the GJM said that the people of the hills were upset with Ahluwalia, as he never turned up even once during the violent Gorkhaland unrest in 2017 when the hills experienced a shutdown for 104 days as many as 13 people were killed.

Party insiders reveal that Ahluwalia had asked for a ticket from Asansol where he is originally from. However, senior leaders in the party were of the opinion that shifting sitting MP Babul Supriyo who has a good local connect in his own constituency would yield no results.

Eventually, he was offered Asansol adjoining seat - Burdwan-Durgapur.

With this, the party has announced 408 candidates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls which will start on April 11 and continue till May 19. The counting of the votes will take place on May 23.