BJP announces 3 candidates for Lok Sabha polls in Punjab; fields ex-IAS officer Parampal Kaur from Bathinda

PTI

Chandigarh, April 16

The BJP on Tuesday came out with its second list of three candidates in Punjab for the Lok Sabha polls, replacing Union Minister Som Parkash with his wife from Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat.

The party fielded Anita Som Parkash from the Hoshiarpur reserve parliamentary constituency, according to the list of candidates. Anita thanked the party leadership for entrusting her with the responsibility.

The BJP won the seat in the 2014 and 2019 polls. The party’s Vijay Sampla had won it in 2014 while Som Parkash had defeated Congress nominee Raj Kumar Chabbewal in 2019.

Hoshiarpur is one of the three seats which BJP had been fighting when it was in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal. But the saffron party is fighting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls on its own.

Anita Som Parkash will face AAP nominee Raj Kumar Chabbewal in the coming polls. The Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) are yet to name their candidates from Hoshiarpur.

As expected, the BJP fielded former IAS officer Parampal Kaur Sidhu from Bathinda parliamentary seat, currently held by SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Sidhu is the daughter-in-law of senior Akali leader Sinkander Singh Maluka. She recently joined the BJP along with her husband Gurpreet Singh Maluka in Delhi.

Before joining the saffron party, Sidhu, a 2011-batch IAS officer, had put in her papers.

She is pitted against Congress candidate Jeet Mohinder Sidhu and AAP’s Gurmeet Singh Khudian. The SAD is yet to name its candidate from Bathinda seat.

The Bathinda seat is considered a SAD stronghold. Harsimrat won the Bathinda seat in 2009, 2014 and 2019. In the last Lok Sabha polls, she had defeated Congress candidate Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.

The BJP fielded former MLA from Baba Bakala seat Manjit Singh Manna Mianwind from the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat.

Khadoor Sahib seat is currently held by Congress MP Jasbir Singh. The AAP has fielded Laljit Singh Bhullar from this seat.

With the latest announcement, the party has named candidates for nine out of the total 13 seats in Punjab.

Earlier, the party had announced its candidates from Ludhiana, Amritsar, Faridkot, Patiala, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar.

Polling for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will be held in the last phase on June 1.

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