Deepinder Dhillon is Cong candidate from Dera Bassi

Satinder Pal Singh

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Dera Bassi, January 12

Congress National president Sonia Gandhi today ended all speculations about the party ticket for the Dera Bassi seat. Sonia Gandhi made it amply clear that Deepinder Singh Dhillon is the party candidate from Dera Bassi. An announcement to this effect was made by the Congress high command today.

Deepinder Singh Dhillon is all set to take the electoral plunge in the Assembly elections to be held on February 4. He is the party candidate from the Dera Bassi Constituency.

Dhillon would thus be fighting against SAD-BJP candidate and sitting MLA NK Sharma, and AAP’s Bibi Sarabjeet Kaur, wife of late Capt Kanwaljit’s Singh, a former SAD minister.

Dhillon is seen as a candidate who can make the going difficult for SAD-BJP candidate and sitting MLA NK Sharma given that he knows the ‘ins and outs’ of the SAD-BJP in the Dera Bassi Constituency and could manage to bring in more party members into the Congress fold.

Party insiders said the decision to field Deepinder Singh Dhillon from Dera Bassi was a deliberate one in view of his close association with this Constituency and the special bond that the people here shared with him.

The party also expects that an overwhelming public response to Deepinder will send a strong signal to potential allies that the Congress is not a spent force.

“We are more than happy to welcome him. He is a local face and it is more a homecoming for him. Now, the Congress will be taking Akalis with a bang,” said a local Congress leader.

About Deepinder Singh Dhillon

Deepinder Singh Dhillon, a confidant of former Minister of State for External Affairs, Preneet Kaur, quit the Congress in 2012 after he was denied Congress ticket for the Dera Bassi seat. Dhillon contested the 2012 Assembly elections from the Dera Bassi Constituency as an Independent candidate. He was just second to NK Sharma in the last elections and had got 51,248 votes as an Independent.

Dhillon was expelled from the Congress before the Assembly elections on January 22, 2012, after he announced to contest as an Independent candidate from Dera Bassi. Later on, he joined the SAD and was appointed the District Planning Board Chairman, Patiala.

Dhillon’s elevation to the plum post had left many a senior SAD leaders of Patiala district red-faced. Notably, the names of most of the SAD leaders were missing from the hoardings installed to congratulate Dhillon.

Dhillon even contested the Lok Sabha poll in 2014 against Preneet Kaur and AAP candidate Dharamvir Gandhi. He had finished third in a three-corner contest where Congress candidate Preneet Kaur was the runner-up and AAP’s Dharamvir Gandhi won.

In 2016, Dhillon was expelled from the SAD for his alleged anti-party activities. Deepinder blamed Akali MLA from Dera Bassi NK Sharma for leaving him with no option but to quit the SAD and join the Congress.