Picking strong nominees for Khadoor Sahib, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib uphill task for BJP

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 29

The central BJP leadership met Punjab unit top brass in Delhi late on Thursday to discuss candidates for 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state which goes to the polls on June 1.

The meeting was attended by BJP president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP general secretary organisation BL Santosh, party national vice-president Saudan Singh, Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar among other senior leaders.

Bittu calls on state chief

MP Ravneet Bittu on Friday called on Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar in Delhi. Welcoming Bittu, Jakhar said, “With the inclusion of dynamic leaders like Bittu, the BJP in Punjab will be strengthened.”

Nadda, Shah hold talks with Jakhar

• BJP chief JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah met Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar among other senior leaders on Friday evening to discuss candidates for 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state
• Nominees for Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar are almost final with names of Preneet Kaur, Ravneet Bittu, Sushil Rinku and Taranjit Singh Sandhu being on the panel

Candidates for Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar are almost final with the names of Preneet Kaur, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Sushil Kumar Rinku and Taranjit Singh Sandhu on the panel.

From Anandpur Sahib, the names of former MP Avinash Rai Khanna; National Commission for Minorities chairperson Iqbal Singh Lalpura and his son Ajayvir Singh Lalpura (Rupnagar district chief) were discussed.

Late actor and BJP MP Vinod Khanna’s wife Kavita Khanna, former Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma and former Congress MLA Fateh Jung Bajwa, brother of Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, are in the panel for Gurdaspur constituency. Fateh Jung had joined BJP in 2021.

Kewal Dhillon (former Barnala MLA) and Arvind Khanna are among potential candidates for Sangrur and from Ferozepur, former ministers Rana Gurmeet Sodhi and Surjit Kumar Jyani are among the probables.

“In case a Hindu is to be fielded from Sangrur, Arvind Khanna could be a choice,” a source said. Kewal Dhillon had lost the 2022 Sangrur LS bypoll on the BJP ticket.

It remains to be seen if Sunil Jakhar will contest LS poll. Sources said with ex-finance minister Manpreet Badal recuperating following a heart attack in March, the party is looking for a nominee from the VIP seat represented by former Union Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Badal. The name of Sarup Singla is among those on the panel from Bathinda.

Finding candidates for Khadoor Sahib, Fatehgarh Sahib and Faridkot remains a challenge for the saffron party.

Sources said until 2022, when it fought Assembly poll alone (not in alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal) for the first time since 1997, the BJP had not contested any Assembly segment in the LS constituencies of Sangrur, Bathinda, Khadoor Sahib, Faridkot and Fatehgarh Sahib.

“Naturally, the BJP’s network in these segments remained weak as the party focused only on 23 seats which it fought along with SAD between 1997 and 2022. In 2022, we fought some seats but the fact is the party will have to start afresh and is prepared for a long haul as it was in West Bengal where it emerged from the shadows to become the principal Opposition party to the ruling TMC,” a source said.

BJP leaders drew parallels between political landscapes of Bengal and Punjab saying even in West Bengal, the BJP was a marginal player till 2014, contesting LS poll as a junior ally of TMC in 1998, 1999 and 2004. In 2001 and 2006 polls, Mamata Banerjee preferred the Congress over the BJP. It was only in 2014 LS poll that BJP made its first solo and aggressive bid for power in Bengal winning two seats. In 2019, it won 18.

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