For Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, BJP zeroes in on four candidates

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, March 10

The BJP state election committee (SEC) has shortlisted the names of four candidates for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat. They are Kavita Khanna, wife of four-time ex-MP and film icon Vinod Khanna, state ex-chief and two-time Pathankot legislator Ashwani Sharma, Punjab ex-Deputy Speaker and three-time Sujanpur MLA Dinesh Singh Babbu, and Qadian ex-MLA Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa.

Names sent to central panel

The state election committee was led by state BJP president Sunil Jakhar. The names shortlisted for Gurdaspur seat have been forwarded to the party’s central election committee, which is headed by party national chief JP Nadda.

Workers’ feedback the basis

The probables have been shortlisted on the basis of feedback received from workers, block and mandal presidents and other office-bearers. A senior leader

These names have been forwarded to the party’s central election committee (CEC), which is headed by JP Nadda.

Three of them are Hindu and Bajwa is the lone Sikh probable. The Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency has nine Assembly sebments, four of which are considered Hindu-dominated seats while Sikh voters hold sway in the remaining five.

The Hindu majority seats are Pathankot city, Bhoa, Dinanagar and Sujanpur while the seats where Sikh voters have always played a significant role in the past elections are Gurdaspur, Dera Baba Nanak, Fatehgarh Churian, Qadian and Batala.

The SEC is headed by state BJP president Sunil Jakhar. A senior leader said it was not mandatory for the CEC to choose a candidate only from these four names sent by the state committee.

The names were finalised after the state BJP recently held a series of meetings to gauge the mood of workers. The meetings pertaining to the Gurdaspur seat were presided over by Kewal Dhillon, state BJP vice-president. These meetings were held in Pathankot, Gurdaspur and Batala. Batala and Pathankot are part of the Gurdaspur constituency.

“The probables have been shortlisted on the basis of feedback received from workers, block and mandal presidents and other office-bearers of the party after recent meetings with workers,” said a senior leader.

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