Asansol LS seat: BJP fields S S Alhuwalia against TMC’s Shatrughan Sinha

After a long wait and suspense, the BJP has finally announced the name of former Union minister S S Ahluwalia for the Asansol seat that goes to polls in the 4th phase voting on May 13.

Ahluwalia would take on TMC’s heavyweight candidate and the party’s “star face”, Shatrughan Sinha, in Asansol, an industrial hub, including the state’s coal belt.

Alhuwalia was the party’s sitting MP from the Burdwan-Durgapur seat where the BJP has this time fielded Dilip Ghosh who was the sitting MP

from Midnapore.

The BJP had earlier fielded Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh who later withdrew after Trinamool Congress (TMC) raised allegations of him showing Bengal women in poor light. However, Singh had shown his interest to contest again.

Pawan Singh who had initially backed out had later posted in his social media handle that he will be contesting the polls. However, with the announcement of Alhuwali’s name it seems the saffron brigade does not apparently want to take any chances.

When Singh, whose name had appeared in the first list of the BJP, had backed out, the TMC had taken to social media to claim responsibility for Singh’s decision to withdraw and wrote that he was “misogynistic” and “anti-Bengal”.

Trinamool leader Babul Supriyo had shared certain photos on social media which purportedly appeared as posters of Bhojpuri films featuring Pawan Singh. Such posters were deemed as offensive to women of Bengal by Supriyo. TMC’s Asansol candidate Shatrughan Sinha had slammed Singh’s “completely obscene” music videos and songs.