BJP delays ticket list, candidates restive

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, April 19

Even as other political parties have declared most of their candidates, the BJP’s decision to keep the names on the three seats on hold has kept the aspirants and party workers on tenterhooks.

The BJPcampaign has not been able to pick up so far as workers want to know the names of their nominees first.

A BJP aspirant said, “There is hardly any time left now. Other candidates have been campaigning for the past one week. Even if we get the ticket confirmation tomorrow, we will just have two to three days for campaigning in each of the nine Assembly segments.”

Actors, whose names are said to be under consideration, include Sunny Deol, who is said to have met BJP national chief Amit Shah today. Before Deol, the party had also contemplated the names of actor Poonam Dhillon and Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina from Amritsar. The Gurdaspur seat is likely to go to former MP Vinod Khanna’s wife Kavita Khanna or his son Akshaye Khanna.

For Hoshiarpur, initially the main contest was seen between sitting MP Vijay Sampla and Phagwara MLA Som Parkash. However, the RSS is learnt to have projected the name of former Chairman of Punjab SC Commission Rajesh Bagha. The name of former AAP MP Harinder Singh Khalsa is also said to be under consideration.

State BJP chief Shwait Malik said, “Khalsa’s name was not in the panel that we proposed to the Parliamentary Board. He joined later, so we cannot say. We are no way late. The papers can be filed till April 29.”

Prabhat Jha, incharge of state BJP, said, “In the BJP, the candidates do not have to contest on their own. The party plays a larger role with them. So, there should be no worries. The list will be out soon.”

Process of filing papers to begin on Apr 22

• The BJP is to field its candidates from Hoshiarpur (reserved), Gurdaspur and Amritsar constituencies
• The process of filing of nomination papers will start on April 22