The BJP is set to field Surinder Singh Ahluwalia in Bardhaman Durgapur Lok Sabha seat for the second time, the party insiders said today.
Ahluwalia, who’s camping in New Delhi currently, said over phone this afternoon, “I would like to remain silent on this till tomorrow afternoon.” His close associates meanwhile claimed that the party though initially was planning to shift him elsewhere, has set to nominate him for the same seat for the second term.
Barely a handful days ahead of the polls in 2019, Ahluwalia was pitted against Trinamul Congress candidate Mumtaz Sanghamita and he won the seat defeating the sitting MP by a thin margin of 2,400 votes. In 2014, he won the Darjeeling seat by a margin of 1.5 lakh votes with support of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.
The BJP, though has already declared the names of its candidates for the entire neighbouring seats, but surprisingly has reserved the candidature of the Bardhaman Durgapur constituency. A few fresh names like Agnimitra Paul, an MLA were doing the rounds. The central election committee of the BJP, as learnt, chose to re-nominate Ahluwalia for the seat against Trinamul Congress’s heavyweight candidate Kirti Azad, the cricketer-turned-politician.