Ahluwalia’s name was among the nine in the tenth Lok Sabha candidates list announced by the BJP….reports Asian Lite News
Former Union Minister Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday filed his nomination as the BJP candidate for West Bengal’s Asansol Lok Sabha constituency.
Ahluwalia’s name was among the nine in the tenth Lok Sabha candidates list announced by the BJP.
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Earlier, the party had fielded Pawan Singh from Asansol, but he subsequently withdrew his candidature without specifying any reason and is set to contest the polls as an independent candidate from Bihar’s Karakat.
Ahluwalia, the sitting MP from Burdwan-Durgapur constituency will take on Trinamool Congress (TMC) heavyweight Satrughan Sinha.
Ahluwalia won the 2019 election with a margin of 2,439 votes, securing 5,98,376 votes, defeating Mamtaz Sanghamita of the TMC, who got 5,95,937 votes.
Ahluwalia served as Minister of State for Urban Affairs and Employment (Department of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation) and Parliamentary Affairs in the P V Narasimha Rao cabinet from September 15, 1995, to May 16, 1996. He was also deputy opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha from June 2010 to May 2012.
From 1986 to 2012, he was a Rajya Sabha MP representing Bihar and Jharkhand. In 1999, he joined the BJP, and in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, he won from the Darjeeling constituency with the active support of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.
Earlier the party had named Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh from the Asansol Lok Sabha seat whose candidature, later faced massive criticism from the TMC. The ruling party alleged that many of his songs were derogatory towards women and Pawan Singh announced his withdrawal from the electoral race.
Notably, polling in the 42 parliamentary constituencies in West Bengal will be held across all seven phases: April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1.
Asansol will go to the polls on May 13. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
Chandigarh seat
INDIA bloc partners, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday, for the first time, chalked out a joint strategy for the Chandigarh parliamentary constituency.
A strategy meeting of INDIA bloc partners was held here, which was, among others, attended by the INDIA candidate and former Union Minister Manish Tewari, AAP in charge for Chandigarh Jarnail Singh, Chandigarh Congress President H.S. Lucky, and Chandigarh AAP President Sunny Ahluwalia.
Leaders said there was total unanimity and consensus between the two parties that this election was important not just from the local reasons, but from the national perspective also.
They said each and every vote and seat would count and thus, the INDIA bloc was not leaving anything to chance.
Delhi MLA Jarnail Singh assured full support of AAP for joint candidate Tewari, saying all the AAP workers and leaders in the Union Territory were committed to ensuring his victory.
“It is not Tewari’s personal or individual election, but that of the alliance together,” he said.
Tewari expressed gratitude to the workers and leaders of the Congress and the AAP for their support, saying that he was feeling overwhelmed with the support he was getting from the cadres of the two parties in the city.
The Congress leader appreciated the mutual understanding between the leaders and workers of the two parties, which was reflected in the tireless hard work everyone was putting in to ensure the victory of the INDIA candidate in the election.
He said everybody had realised how important this election was going to be not just for the two parties or their leaders but also for the common man across the country.
The BJP has fielded Sanjay Tandon, dropping two-term MP and actor-turned-politician Kirron Kher, while Shiromani Akali Dal has pitted three-time city councillor Hardeep Singh Saini, 41, as its candidate, making the election a three-cornered contest. In the previous Lok Sabha polls, the SAD had been allied with the BJP.
Chandigarh will go to the polls for its sole Lok Sabha seat on June 1. (ANI/IANS)
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