Ahluwalia’s name was among the nine in the tenth Lok Sabha candidates list announced by the BJP on Wednesday. Earlier, the party had fielded Pawan Singh from Asansol, but he subsequently withdrew his candidature. It was believed that former MLA and Mayor of Asansol, Jitendra Tiwari, would replace him as the BJP wanted to field a Hindi-speaking candidate from Asansol to contest against Trinamool Congress (TMC) heavyweight Satrughan Sinha. However, the party has now turned to Asansol-born Ahluwalia.
“Ahluwalia is an experienced politician. He is also a known Bengali-speaking leader who can give a tough fight to the Bihari babu Shatrughan Sinha. He is fluent in Bengali and Hindi. He was born in Asanol, so people would easily connect with him,” said Gopal Singh, a voter who owns a business in Asansol. Over 45 per cent of Asansol’s voters are non-Bengalis, and around 10 per cent of them are Sikhs.
Ahluwalia attended St. Joseph School, Asansol for his schooling, graduated from Bidhan Chandra College, Burdwan University, and completed his LLB from University College of Law, Calcutta University.
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. Ahluwalia played a significant role as a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee investigating the 2G scam.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP fielded Ahluwalia from Burdwan-Durgapur constituency, as he was replaced by Raju Singh Bista from Darjeeling. 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.
Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh’s candidature from the Asansol Lok Sabha seat 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 without specifying any reason.
Another probable candidate, Tiwari, was dragged into a controversy when the TMC claimed he met the National Investigation Agency (NIA) SP and hatched a conspiracy to arrest TMC workers in connection with the 2022 Bhupatinagar blast.