Hot contenders - Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat: BJP, Congress facing problem of plenty

Deepkamal Kaur/Sanjiv Bakshi

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Hoshiarpur, March 3

The Hoshiarpur (reserved) parliamentary constituency, which has shuffled between the BJP and the Congress in almost all previous Lok Sabha elections, has a long list of contenders from both parties in the coming General Election.

The saffron party, which has its MP here, seems to be seeing a fight for ticket among aspirants. While sitting MP and Union Minister of State Som Parkash is eyeing ticket from the seat again, his arch rival in the party and former Chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes Vijay Sampla is adamant on getting it back. But there are more leaders from the party keen for the seat, including retired bureaucrat SR Ladhar, Sufi singer and sitting North West Delhi MP Hans Raj Hans and state committee member Joginder Chhina. A local woman academician, too, is in the fray for the ticket.

From the Congress, the party seems to be looking forward to repeating its 2019 candidate and Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal. The party leadership had also approached Phagwara sitting MLA and retired IAS officer BS Dhaliwal but both are learnt to be somewhat reluctant to contest. The names of former MP Santosh Chowdhary and ex-MLA Pawan Adia are also doing the rounds. Former DGP of Kerala, Sudesh Kumar, who joined the Congress last month, is also in the queue.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in the state, which had Dr Ravjot Singh as the candidate from Hoshiarpur seat in 2019, is unlikely to contest again as he currently is legislator from Sham Churasi (reseved) Assembly segment. While former minister Joginder S Mann is learnt to be in race but he hails from the Valmiki community, which does not have much representation in Hoshiarpur. There are also indications that Dr Lakhvir Singh, District Health Officer, who recently took premature retirement, is being roped in by the party and could be projected as the candidate.

While Shiromani Akali Dal so far does not seem very keen for this seat, the name of former minister Sohan S Thandal seems to be the only prominent face so far. The BSP, whose founder Kanshi Ram was MP from here in 1996, in a solo contest can make or mar the prospects of other contesting candidates.