Ayali is Akali choice for Dakha

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 23

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today named ex-Dakha MLA and Ludhiana Zila Parishad chairman Manpreet Singh Ayali as the party’s candidate for the Dakha bypoll.

Announcing this here today, SAD spokesperson Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said the party had decided to nominate Ayali again for the seat. He added the party would decide the candidate for the Jalalabad seat within two days.

The Dakha bypoll has been necessitated after the incumbent AAP MLA HS Phoolka resigned from the seat. Ayali was elected from the seat in 2012, but he lost to Phoolka in 2017.

For the Jalalabad seat, the party is looking to field a leader from the majority Rai Sikh community but no name has been finalised yet. The seat fell vacant after the incumbent MLA and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was elected to the Lok Sabha from Ferozepur. He had defeated a Rai Sikh leader and ex-Akali Sher Singh Gubhaya by a margin of nearly two lakh votes. He had won the Lok Sabha elections with the huge support of the Rai Sikh community and the party wants to give representation to the community now.

Jalalabad has returned Akali candidates to the Assembly since 2007.