Assembly poll: AAP declares 3 candidates

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 10

With Aam Adami Party (AAP) declaring names of three party candidates from as many Assembly constituencies from the holy city in its first list of candidates to contest the ensuing 2022 assembly polls, the poll scenario is likely to hot up in the coming days.

Former Punjab Police Inspector General Kunwar Vijay Partap is fielded from the North Assembly segment, Dr Inderbir Nijjar for the South and Harbhajan Singh ETO (retd), from Jandiala Guru.

Of these three AAP candidates, cop-turned-politician is a greenhorn in politics. He joined AAP after taking premature retirement in June stating that “till justice is done in sacrilege and firing incidents, the prevailing state of affairs for the common man is “meaningless”. He is pitted against SAD-BSP’s candidate Anil Joshi, a former Cabinet minister. While sitting MLA from the North is Sunil Dutti of Congress.

At Amritsar South constituency, Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar will be contesting for the second time. In the last assembly election, he had secured 24,923 votes while Congress candidate Inderbir Singh Bolaria had won by 22,658 votes. He got 47,581 votes. Gurpratap Singh Tikka of SAD had to settle for 16,596 votes.

This time SAD is likely to field Talbir Singh Gill from the constituency while another prominent Congress party leader Harjinder Singh Thekedar has announced to join Capt Amarinder Singh-leded party. He is likely to contest from this constituency.

In the last Assembly election, Harbhajan Singh ETO (retired) secured impressive 33,912 votes which was 27.17 vote percentage, the maximum among the AAP contestants in the district. He had stood third in the constituency. Sukhwinder Singh Danny of Congress topped with 53,042 votes and SAD’s Dalbir Singh was second with 34,620 votes.

Teacher-turned-excise officer-turned politician Harbhajan Singh is a native of Jandiala. After hardly serving for four years in the PCS allied service in the Excise and Taxation Department, he had tendered his resignation to join politics. After serving for 16 years, he had taken a premature retirement as a lecturer of political science from the Government Senior Secondary School, Jandiala Guru, where he had once received his education.