Union Minister SS Ahluwalia to contest from Burdwan-Durgapur constituency

New Delhi, Apr 07: Union Minister SS Ahluwalia will contest LokSabha Elections 2019 from Burdwan - Durgapur Parliamentary constituency (West Bengal). Ahluwalia is the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology.

BJP leaders had demanded that Narendra Modi be fielded from the Burdwan-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat.

His name was missing in the first list of candidates released by the BJP on March 21.

Earlier, the BJP named Raju Singh Bisht as its candidate from Darjeeling seat for the Lok Sabha polls in place of sitting lawmaker and Union minister S S Ahluwalia.

Ahluwalia was elected to the seat with the active support of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in May 2014 after the general elections. In 2009, Jaswant Singh had won the seat.

Trinamool Congress holds the Burdwan Durgapur Lok Sabha seat, which was formed after the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies in 2008.

Mamtaz Sanghamita wrested Burdwan Durgapur after defeating Saidul Haque of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Haque had won the last general election held in 2009.

The ruling party is the eastern state has fielded Mamtaz Sanghamita again for the Lok Sabha election 2019 in the parliamentary constituency number 39 in the state.

Voting will be held on April 29, the fourth phase of the seven-phase polls in the state, and counting on May 23.