Manipur Born Entrepreneur Raju Bista Is BJP Candidate For Darjeeling: Kailash Vijayvargiya

WEPEN, Mar 24, 2019: Shri Raju Bista is the BJP candidate for Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency, claimed GNLF and GJM (Bimal Gurung faction) on Facebook. BJP’s official announcement came in much later.

Kailash Vijayvargiya, a few minutes back said, “Raju Singh Bista to contest from Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal. SS Ahluwalia in a letter to Amit Shah has expressed his inability to contest from Darjeeling. He has stated that he can contest from any other seat in West Bengal.”

BJP Gen Secy Kailash Vijayvargiya: Raju Singh Bisht to contest from Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal. SS Ahluwalia in a letter to Amit Shah has expressed his inability to contest from Darjeeling. He has stated that he can contest from any other seat in West Bengal pic.twitter.com/IgpB7FM3uF

— ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2019

Delhi: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and Gorkha National Liberation Front to support BJP in Darjeeling in upcoming Lok Sabha elections. pic.twitter.com/n75SH6lIXA

— ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2019

Around 8PM, Abhijit Roy Choudhury, BJP Darjeeling district president stated, “We do not have any official communication on the candidate as yet.”

A post on GNLF’s Facebook page read as follows: Shri Raju Bista has been declared as the MP candidate for Darjeeling Constituency by BJP to contest the Lok Sabha seat in alliance with the United GNLF GJMM. He is a young and dymamic leader and hails from the north east state. He has been the Managing Director at Surya Roshni Limited since October 29, 2012. He joined Surya Foundation an NGO in furtherance of his deep rooted desire to develop the youth of the country. Shri Bista holds the directorship in Surya Global Steel Tubes Limited and Surya Global Infrastructure Limited.

On the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Bimal Gurung faction)’s facebook page, a poster welcoming Mr. Bista was also seen. It read, “Our candidate for Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency is Mr Raju Bista.”

BJP leaders and workers in the plains of the Darjeeling constituency weren’t aware of the development.

A photograph circulating on social media shows Mr. Bista with GJM leaders Bimal Gurung, Roshan Giri, Lopsang Lama, Mr. Swaraj Thapa and GNLF leaders NB Chhetri (Former Darjeeling MLA), Neeraj Zimba, Y Lama and others.

A Bloomberg report on Mr. Bista reads, “Shri Raju Bista has been the Managing Director at Surya Roshni Limited since October 29, 2012. Shri Bista served as a Deputy Managing Director of Surya Roshni Limited until October 29, 2012. He joined Surya Foundation an NGO in furtherance of his deep rooted desire to develop the youth of the country. His management and planning skills are valuable factors in the growth of Surya. He has been a Whole Time Director of Surya Roshni Limited since June 18, 2009. Shri Bista holds the directorship in Surya Global Steel Tubes Limited and Surya Global Infrastructure Limited. He is a Graduate in Arts from Manipur. He has done Executive Masters Programme in Business Administration with specialization in Marketing Management from National Institute of Business Management.”

GNLF spokesperson Mr. Neeraj Zimba also put up a Facebook post declaring the same.

Earlier, GJM (Bimal Gurung faction) and GNLF had forged an alliance.