NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: Nominating a candidate for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll is proving tricky for the BJP after two religious leaders — Sri Sri Ravishankar and Ramdev — reportedly dug in their heels for their respective nominees Kavita Khanna and Swaran Salaria. The BJP is likely to unveil the party nominee Thursday for the seat going to bypoll on October 11. The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna.
However, the Congress party will field Punjab party president Sunil Jakhar for the Gurdaspur seat. The announcement to this effect was made by the party high command in Delhi after party president Sonia Gandhi cleared his name. Jhakhar’s name was recommended by Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh.
In the case of BJP, party insiders believe that the power play within the saffron outfit witnessed in 2014 for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat is again playing out.
“Vinod Khanna had lost the 2009 Lok Sabha elections to Congress nominee Pratap Singh Bajwa. In 2014, Ramdev had put in a strong request for industrialist Swaran Salaria. However, party veteran L K Advani had stepped in to ensure that Khanna was renominated from the seat,” said a senior BJP functionary.
Though Advani is learnt to be keeping away from the party affairs after having been made a member of the Margdarshak Mandal of the party, Kavita Khanna has reportedly got strong support of the proponent of Art of Living.
For the Congress party, Jakhar is a Hindu face. He became the president of the state unit in May and is considered a potential winner in party circles. He originally belongs to Abohar in Fazilka district and is considered close to Amarinder Singh. Most of the Congress MLAs feel that Jakhar was the best bet for the party to win the seat and he should fight this bypoll, as Harish Rai Chaudhary who is co-in charge of the party on state affairs had recently met most of the legislators from Gurdaspur and Pathnakot districts to assess the situation. The MLAs gave in writing that they will support the candidate who the high command chooses.