BJP to replace nine fielded in 2012

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9

The Punjab BJP will replace at least nine out of 23 candidates who contested the 2012 Assembly elections.

Top on the list are Amritsar East MLA Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, Industry and Commerce Minister Madan Mohan Mittal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chunni Lal Bhagat, former Health Minister Sat Pal Gosain and former party president Prof Rajinder Bhandari.

A party functionary said the BJP was making a list of candidates who were most likely to be left out because of several reasons.

The easiest to name was Dr Sidhu because she joined the Congress. Mittal, Bhagat and Gosain will be left out because they are more than 75 years old.

Source said that in spite of RSS backing for Ludhiana West MLA Bhandari, the party is considering dropping his name from the list of nominees because he had lost the previous elections by a huge margin of 35,922 to Congress’ Bharat Bhushan Ashu.

Raj Khurana, a former MLA from Rajpura, will be replaced as he is not keeping good health.

Among the unsuccessful candidates last time, Vijay Luxmi Bhadoo, who polled less than 10,000 votes and lost her security deposit in Abohar, is unlikely to make the cut.

Rakesh Gill, who lost from Amritsar West, is also likely to be dropped.

Bishan Das, who lost from Dinanagar, could also be dropped, sources said.