Ahluwalia fights 'outsider' barb

Saibal Sen,TNN | Mar 15, 2014, KOLKATA: If this 63-year-old BJP national vice-president had a choice he would do away with the word 'outsider'. He would rather replace it with "son of the soil". And he doesn't say it lightly.

BJP's Darjeeling Lok Sabha candidate S S Ahluwalia wasn't only born in Asansol, he did his schooling from St Joseph School, Asansol, BSc from Bidhan Chandra College, Burdwan University and LLB from Calcutta University. His Darjeeling connect isn't limited to spending vacations there. His eldest son has actually studied in St Paul's Darjeeling.

Speaking in chaste Bengali from New Delhi, Ahluwalia said, "Bengal is my birthplace. From Bengal, I'd moved on to undivided Bihar and then to Ranchi in Jharkhand after the state was divided. But I have always been involved with Darjeeling in a sense. I had worked with Hill leaders closely during the discourse over the sixth schedule and got to interact with them closely."

Ahluwalia says he is grateful to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for proposing his name to the BJP leadership - which later got a formal nod. "To get an opportunity to be in Bengal and Darjeeling is a huge honour and I will try to live up to it," he said. Ahluwalia, according to sources, was also instrumental in getting former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh elected from Darjeeling Lok Sabha in 2009. Having being elected by the Jharkhand legislature, Ahluwalia was then serving his fourth term in Rajya Sabha.

Expectations are running high on him. GJM president Bimal Gurung said, "For the GJM, it is not the question of an 'outsider' but more important is the 'cause' that is closest to our hearts. What we need to consider is our long-standing demand for a separate state. We feel and are confident that the BJP only can help us to achieve our desired goal. A person of S S Ahluwalia's stature can raise the issue and lead it to its positive end as he has always been championing the cause of the Gorkhas."

Ahluwalia wouldn't speak on it yet. "Let me first go there. There will be enough opportunity to speak later," he told TOI. BJP state president Rahul Sinha, however, has made it clear that the political alignment with GJM isn't a stamp on approval for their demand for a separate Gorkhaland. "Bengal will never be divided," Sinha said.

Ahluwalia is aware of the powder keg he is stepping in. On the GJM-Trinamool Congress war of words, he said, "These are local issues that concern the GJM and the ruling party in Bengal. I wish not to delve into it now. My first and foremost objective is to meet my state leaders and also GJM leadership and then frame on a unified plan of action (read campaign). Before that it would be improper for me to deal with specific issues. It also has to be borne in mind that these elections are for the Lok Sabha."

Ahluwalia also wouldn't be coaxed into saying anything against his Trinamool Congress rival Baichung Bhutia, a former Indian skipper. "It will be a political contest and not a personal battle."