NEW DELHI: In the battle of two religious leaders, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev appears to have trumped Sri Sri Ravishankar, after the BJP Thursday nominated Swaran Salaria for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha byelection necessitated following the demise of Vinod Khanna. While Ramdev had thrown his weight behind Salaria, Sri Sri was apparently keen that the widow of the yesteryear’s actor – Kavita Khanna – bagged the nomination.
“The decision to field Salaria was taken after extensive discussions within the party. There was a meeting at the residence of the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely Wednesday evening. While Salaria and Khanna were the two names before the party, it was felt that a local should be fielded at a time when the Congress has strongly made a comeback in Punjab,” said a senior BJP functionary.
Salaria is an industrialist. He was, incidentally, also in the fray for the party nomination for the 2014 Lok Sabha election from the Gurdaspur constituency.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya submitted their respective resignations from the memberships of the Lok Sabha. While Adityanath represented the Gorakhpur constituency, Maurya had won from Phulpur in the state in 2014 polls. The two leaders have already been elected the state legislative council. The bypolls for the two seats are likely early November, which may coincide with the state Assembly elections for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.