Kolkata, May 23 (IANS) Union Minister and Darjeeling’s outgoing BJP MP S.S. Ahluwalia on Thursday won West Bengal’s Burdwan-Durgapur seat, defeating Trinamool Congress’ Mamtaz Sanghamita by a slender margin of 2,439 votes.
Sanghamita won the seat in 2014 with a margin of 1,07,337 votes.
Former Trinamool MP Saumitra Khan who was expelled for “anti-party activity, and secured the saffron party’s nomination from his old constituency Bishnupur, retained the seat by a margin of 78,047 votes over his nearest rival, Shyamal Santra of the Trinamool.
Khan is barred from entering the district for six weeks by the Calcutta High Court due to ongoing criminal cases against him. He was, however, allowed to file his nomination by the court, but the bar on his entry into most areas of the constituency remained, forcing his wife to do the campaigning on his behalf.
Trinamool’s veteran Sougata Roy retained Dum Dum constituency, defeating his nearest rival BJP’s Samik Bhattachrya by a margin of 53,002 votes.
–IANS
bdc/vd