Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 24
BJP state president Shwait Malik, who chaired a state election meeting on Tuesday, tried to clear the general perception among the party leaders and workers about the candidature of relatives of sitting MPs in the forthcoming byelections.
Clearly batting in favour of Hoshiarpur MP Som Parkash’s wife Anita from the Phagwara seat, he said, “There have been so many instances in the country where MP and MLA are from the same family. There is no such specific rule (against it) in the party, though it will be for the parliamentary board, headed by party president Amit Shah, to decide and finalise the names of the nominees for the Phagwara and Mukerian seats. My job is only to discuss the names here and take the final list to the board which will meet in the next two or three days.”
The election committee members discussed six names for Phagwara, including those of Anita, former Union minister Vijay Sampla’s son Sahil Sampla, former chairman of the SC commission Rajesh Bagha, councillor Om Parkash Bittu, SC Morcha state president Dr Dilbagh Singh and Gurdev Bedi. Most of the discussion centred around the candidature of Anita and Sahil.
Malik said, “We will discuss all names in theboard meeting.”
However, there was dissent among the committee members who attended the meeting today. Former minister Tikshan Sud was reportedly in favour of Anita and Manoranjan Kalia for Sahil. State in-charge Prabhat Jha could not attend the meeting owing to his mother’s recent demise.
Both Vijay Sampla and Som Parkash, who too are members of the committee, were not allowed to participate in the discussions for the Phagwara seat. They, however, participated in the meeting for the Mukerian seat. There were in all 12 aspirants from Mukerian, including former minister Arunesh Shakar, Jangi Lal Mahajan and Rajput leader Thakur Sangram Singh.
BJP state chief’s ‘ROWDY MODI’ gaffe
No nomination filed on Day 2
Chandigarh: No papers were registered for the byelection of Phagwara, Mukerian, Dakha and Jalalabad Assembly constituencies on the second day of the filing of nominations on Tuesday. The last date for the filing of the nominations is September 30. TNS
4
6
9