Kavita Khanna puts speculation to rest, says not to contest Lok Sabha poll

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, April 13

After weeks of speculation over her future plans, Kavita Khanna has finally decided not to contest elections either as an Independent, or as a candidate of any political party.

Kavita is the wife of four-time BJP MP and filmstar Vinod Khanna. She was in reckoning for the BJP ticket from the Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency but the party decided to field ex-Sujanpur MLA Dinesh Singh Babbu. In the 2017 bypoll and the 2019 elections she was a ticket aspirant but her claims were cold shouldered on both occasions.

It was an open secret that the Congress, SAD and AAP were trying to poach her. Senior leaders of all these outfits had been in touch with her for the last few weeks, but they could not make much headway with Kavita not revealing her cards.

Despite being denied the ticket, she continued with her social obligations. This was a clear indication that she would definitely contest the polls. BJP leaders were keeping a watch on her because there were reports that she had the potential to dig deep into the party’s vote bank.

She was skating on thin ice once the BJP had declared that it would not consider an outsider. Despite having a house in Pathankot, this tag stuck to her.

A statement released by her today said, “I am thankful to all parties who offered me the ticket. However, I have decided not to enter the electoral arena.”

The parties which had been in touch with her now will be naming their nominees shortly. At present, she is in Mumbai attending to her ailing mother. Even after she reached Mumbai a few days ago, at least two parties were in touch with her.

“With good candidates difficult to come by, we wanted Kavita to contest. She is well educated and also well versed with the problems of the constituency,” said an AAP leader.

For the last several months, Kavita had been active in the constituency holding sports meets under the banner of the Kavita-Vinod Khanna Foundation. She is an economics and law graduate from a UK university. She has also served a term on the national executive of the BJP.

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