BJP's Gurdaspur LS nominee to be local: Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, November 18

Putting to rest intense speculation that the BJP may go in for a celebrity candidate for the 2024 general elections from the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat, Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal today asserted that the next candidate will be a “local man from the constituency itself.”

Actress’ name was making rounds

• Voters have often complained that incumbent MP Sunny Deol was seldom seen in the constituency.
• Of late, the name of a leading Bollywood actress was making the rounds.

The minister said this when confronted with the fact that incumbent MP Sunny Deol was seldom seen in the constituency. A section of the BJP has all along been claiming that the party will settle for yet another celebrity if it decides to sideline the claims of Deol or if the actor himself declines to contest. The name of a leading Bollywood actress was making the rounds.

“Local candidates know the political topography of the area better than ‘parachute candidates’. They are in a better position to solve the problems of the people as compared to a person who has nothing to do with the constituency. With Meghwal’s remarks, the decks have now been cleared for the selection of a political leader born and brought up in the constituency,” said a senior BJP leader.

Insiders say in his meetings with mandal presidents and also in deliberations with workers, Meghwal had been informed that “Deol had done nothing substantial for the voters who elected him by a whopping margin.”

“Before Deol, we had Vinod Khanna, yet another celebrity, as an MP for four terms. It is another matter that as compared to Deol, Khanna did bring in a few projects that included building of some strategically important bridges. However, the bottom line is that both of them were celebrities and now people want a candidate who should be one of their own. From today, the party has actually started the process of identifying a local leader as its candidate,” said a senior leader.

The minister said as far many centrally-sponsored schemes had turned out to be non-starters because the AAP-led state government was not chipping in with its part of funds.

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