Asansol Lok Sabha Election 2024: As the Lok Sabha elections draw near, states like West Bengal are politically charged up to contest in the polls. In Bengal's Asansol district, the key contest is between Trinamool Congress' Shatrugan Sinha, Bharatiya Janata Party's SS Ahluwalia and Communist Party of India (Marxist) Velichala Rajendra Rao. The state has 42 Lok Sabha constituencies. Earlier, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced election dates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. West Bengal is scheduled to head to polls in all seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
TMC bats for Shantrughan Sinha
TMC has fielded actor and politician Shatrughan Sinha from this constituency. He has served as a Lok Sabha MP from Patna Sahib constituency as well as a Rajya Sabha member. Sinha has also served as a Union Cabinet Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Shipping in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He holds a Diploma in Acting from the Film and Television Institute of India Pune. Earlier, he was a part of the Indian National Congress after he was denied a ticket by the BJP. Later in 2022, he joined the TMC and contested the by-election from Asansol winning against the BJP candidate.
SS Ahluwalia is BJP's choice
BJP has chosen Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia from this constituency. Ahluwalia currently represents Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal. Earlier, he had also represented Darjeeling. Prior to 2014 general elections he has also represented Jharkhand and Bihar. Ahluwalia is a lawyer by education having graduated from Calcutta University.
What happened in 2019?
In the 2019 General Assembly Elections, Asansol witnessed a 76.62% voter turnout in the year 2019. BJP candidate Babul Supriya Baral won the 2019 General Election with a victory margin of 1,97,637 votes, securing 6,33,378 votes. Babul Supriya Baral defeated Sreemati (moon Moon) Dev Varma (sen) of the AITC, who got 4,35,741 votes.
Lok Sabha elections 2024
The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls, the world’s biggest election exercise, will kick off on April 19 with the counting of votes set to take place on June 4 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes a bid for a third consecutive term in office.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said over 97 crore voters – 49.7 crore males and 47.1 crore females – were eligible to cast their vote in the polling process spread over 44 days and across 10.5 lakh polling booths. The elections will begin on April 19 followed by subsequent phases on April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.
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