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It’s Sidhu v/s Sidhu in Mohali

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Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, January 3

It’s official! An IAS officer, Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu, was today formally named the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate from Mohali for the ensuing Punjab Assembly elections.

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Sidhu, who was posted as the Secretary, Punjab Mandi Board, had tendered his resignation yesterday.

With this, the high-profile Mohali constituency will have two main contestants with a common surname ‘Sidhu’. Sitting MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu is the Congress nominee. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded a former sarpanch at Jhingran Kala village in Kharar, Narinder Singh Shergill, in place of its heavyweight, Himmat Singh Shergill, who was earlier shifted to Majitha against Akali heavyweight Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia.

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The Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi-led Punjab Front has nominated Mohali district panchayat union president Balwinder Singh Kumbra from Mohali.

SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today formally announced the candidature of Sidhu, who is the eldest son-in-law of Akali heavyweight and Rajya Sabha member, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.

It was after the ruling party failed to find any suitable local candidate in Mohali that it zeroed in on the name of the 58-year-old ex-serviceman-turned-bureaucrat, who hails from Muktsar, the native district of the state’s first Badal family.

Sidhu, who had two years of civil service left before he took voluntary retirement and threw his hat in the political ring to carry forward the Dhindsa family’s legacy, was a 2004-batch IAS officer and had joined the Punjab Civil Services in 1989. He had served on various important positions.

Sidhu was a known and acceptable face after his three-year stint as the Deputy Commissioner in Mohali.

After Dhindsa’s Finance Minister son, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, who had already been re-nominated from Lehra instead of his present Sunam seat, Sidhu is the second member of the Dhindsa family to get SAD ticket.

In the last Assembly elections, SAD nominee Balwant Singh Ramoowalia (since deserted the party and presently serving as the Cabinet Minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh) had lost to Congress candidate Balbir Singh Sidhu by a margin of 16,752 votes.

Kharar still vacant

The ruling SAD is yet to find any suitable candidate from Kharar, which is among the only 6 seats, from where the party has not yet announced nominees. Alike Mohali, the SAD has not yet been able to find any suitable local face from Kharar, where its then sitting MLA Ujjagar Singh Badali had lost to Congress candidate Jagmohan Singh Kang by less than 7,000 votes. “A popular woman NRI politician is among those who are under consideration, but if nothing goes in favour of any outsider, the party may again bet on its old horse Badali or his daughter,” sources in the SAD told The Tribune.

The Congress and AAP had already named sitting MLA Jagmohan Singh Kang and veteran journalist Kanwar Sandhu, respectively, as their candidates, from Kharar.

From Dera Bassi, which is the third Assembly seat in Mohali district, the SAD and the AAP had named sitting MLA NK Sharma and former Akali Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh’s widow Sarabjit Kaur, respectively, as their candidates. The Congress is yet to announce its nominee from Dera Bassi.

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