BJP names 17 for Punjab polls, Chhina Amritsar LS byelection nominee : The Tribune India

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BJP names 17 for Punjab polls, Chhina Amritsar LS byelection nominee

Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina (left), named as BJP candidate for Amritsar Lok Sabha byelection, with his family members in Amritsar on Thuesday.Tribune file photo: Vishal Kumar

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 12

The central BJP on Thursday officially declared the list of 17 candidates for Punjab but kept pending six names given the differences in the Central Election Committee on the issue.

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Indications are that some of these six sitting MLAs may be dropped from the second list, which is expected to be announced on January 15 when the CEC meets next.

In the list of 17 candidates announced by senior party leader JP Nadda, five are sitting MLAs. Notably the saffron party has 12 MLAs in the outgoing Akali Dal-BJP government.

Meanwhile, it has also finalised the candidature of Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina for the bypoll to Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.

The seat has fallen vacant following the resignation of Congress leader Amarinder Singh, who had defeated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in 2014 polls.

Among the six constituencies held back, four are represented by ministers in the SAD-BJP government. While two of them, who are above 75 years of age, could be dropped given that they do not meet the strict age-limit criteria set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apparently some of the CEC members are also not in view of supporting the claim of Forest Minister Chunni Lal Bhagat, who is requesting for his constituency to be transferred to his son Mahinder Bhagat.

Notably, the Prime Minister is also strictly against party-men lobbying for relatives for tickets — a factor which is expected to cause a whole lot of heartburn for those seeking such favours from the party leadership in the Assembly elections to five states.

As far as retaining the sitting MLAs is concerned, sources say Finance Minister Arun Jaitley — a key pointsman for Punjab polls — was quite in favour of giving them another chance. But it seems that a majority of other members of the high-profile CEC favoured trying out some new names to defeat the anti-incumbency factor stacked against BJP and better its chances.

Apparently, an internal survey conducted by the party had indicated a huge anti-incumbency factor against some of the sitting MLAs in the SAD-BJP combine.

A view was expressed by some members in the meeting yesterday that if some of the names are not changed, they could end up with embarrassing defeats.

Of the 23 seats in the BJP’s kitty, at least on five there were vast differences between Jaitley and BJP chief Amit Shah, which is the main reason why the list was not officially announced last night after the CEC meeting was over.

Even a late night meeting between Punjab in-charge Prabahat Jha and Jaitley failed to resolve the differences — the reason why it was decided to put on hold the decision on the remaining six names for January 15.

Though Industries Minister Madan Mohan Mittal (75) is believed to be seeking his constituency to be transferred to son Arvind Mittal, sources say “in his case there are other issues”.

The committee also withheld a decision on the seats of ministers Anil Joshi (Amritsar North) and Surjit Kumar Jyani (Fazilka) along with those represented by Som Parkash (Phagwara) and Manoranjan Kalia (Jalandhar Central).

The five MLAs in today’s list are Dinesh Singh Babbu, Seema Kumari, Ashwani Sharma, K D Bhandari and Sukhjeet Kaur Sahi from Sujanpur, Bhoa, Pathankot, Jalandhar North and Dasuya constituencies, respectively.

BJP’s national secretary Tarun Chugh will contest from Amritsar Central.

The CEC, which included Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, had met last evening to finalise the names.