In 2014, the BJP candidate in Darjeeling, S S Ahluwalia, received support from the party’s then alliance partner Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) the victory in Asansol was, however, largely on the BJP’s own strength. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Asansol was one of the two seats that the BJP won in West Bengal - the other being Darjeeling, a seat that the party had won in 2009 as well. The CPM won the seat in 19, and then eight times in a row from 1989 to 2014. Due to its demography, and the presence of a large number of factory workers, the constituency has always been a stronghold of the Left.
