Turncoats in the driving seat, Punjab BJP’s loyalists sulk

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

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Chandigarh, May 6

Contesting the Lok Sabha poll alone for the first time since its 24-year-old alliance with SAD broke during the farmers agitation in September 2020, the BJP has given most tickets to outsiders.

The dyed-in-the-wool leaders, including former chiefs and senior office-bearers, feel “humiliated” as the party ignoring them and choosing political turncoats and newcomers instead. Except expressing resentment by former Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes Vijay Sampla, there has been no public display of their hurt emotions by the “disciplined party workers”.

The old guard and senior party leaders, including Manoranjan Kalia, Ashwani Sharma, Shwait Malik, Arvind Khanna, Tarun Chugh, Surjit Jayani and Harjit Grewal, are only engaged in the campaigning.

The party has given tickets to sitting Congress MP Ravneet Bittu (Ludhiana) and Preneet Kaur (Patiala) and sitting AAP MP Sushil Kumar Rinku (Jalandhar). The list also included former IAS Parampal Kaur Sidhu (Bathinda), who is the daughter-in-law of senior SAD leader Sikander Singh Malooka and former IFS officer Taranjit Singh Sandhu (Amritsar), whose grandfather Teja Singh Samundri was in the forefront of the SGPC movement.

It also figures the name of Manjit Singh Manna Mianwind (Khadoor Sahib), two-time MLA of SAD before joining the BJP in 2022. Hans Raj Hans (Faridkot) also had stints with the Congress and SAD. Anita Som Parkash, wife of MP Som Parkash from Hoshiarpur, and Dinesh Babbu from Gurdaspur are the party picks from the BJP.

A senior party leader said, “Our party never got its due share from SAD. The SAD-BJP alliance for the Lok Sabha was in 10:3 seat and for the Vidhan Sabha 94:23. We were unrepresented in most of the state areas.”

Big leaders, who shifted earlier are former Congress Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and former ministers Manpreet Badal, Rana Gurmeet Sodhi, Gurpreet Kangar, Balbir Sidhu and Sunder Sham Arora. Besides BJP state president Sunil Jakhar, other leaders, who shifted from the Congress are Arvind Khanna, Raj Kumar Verka and Kewal Dhillon. Former SAD MLA Sarup Chand Singla also quit to join the saffron party from Bathinda.

The party is still to announce the candidates for Ferozepur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur and Anandpur Sahib seats. A senior functionary concedes, “This time, the Modi wave is strongly missing all over the country and also in Punjab.”

The list of nine

Ravneet Bittu from Ludhiana; Preneet Kaur, Patiala; Parampal Kaur, Bathinda; Taranjit Sandhu, Amritsar; Hans Raj Hans, Faridkot; Manjit Singh Mianwind, Khadoor Sahib; Dinesh Babbu, Gurdaspur; Anita Som Parkash, Hoshiarpur and Sushil Rinku Jalandhar