CHANDIGARH: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced three candidates for the upcoming Punjab Assembly byelections to be held on November 13, which were prompted by legislators vacating Assembly seats for the Lok Sabha.
The BJP has given the ticket to former state finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal in Gidderbaha, a seat he previously won from here four times in 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2007 when he was in the Shiromani Akali Dal, while in 2017 he won from Bathinda Urban on a Congress ticket. However, he lost this seat in the 2022 assembly polls. The Gidderbaha seat fell vacant after Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who was the Congress MLA, was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Ludhiana seat in the recent parliamentary elections.
Kewal Singh Dhillon has been fielded by the saffron party from Barnala. He was earlier in the Congress and remained the MLA from Barnala in 2007 and 2012. He had unsuccessfully contested the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and the Barnala assembly seat in 2017 on Congress tickets.
Ravi Karan Singh Kahlon will contest from Dera Baba Nanak following his switch to the BJP in May this year from the Shiromani Akali Dal. Kahlon is the son of former Punjab Assembly Speaker and former rural development and panchayat minister Nirmal Singh Kahlon. The Dera Baba Nanak seat fell vacant after Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who was the Congress MLA from here, was elected from the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat.
The saffron party is yet to announce its candidate from Chabbewal.
The ruling AAP has already announced its candidates for all the four assembly seats which are going to the polls.
Late on Tuesday, the Congress party announced its candidates for the Assembly bypolls.
Amrita Warring, wife of Punjab Congress president and Ludhiana MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, has been fielded from Gidderbaha.
Jatinder Kaur, wife of Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, will contest from Dera Baba Nanak.
From Barnala, district Congress president Kuldeep Singh Dhillon has been named, while Ranjit Kumar has been fielded from the Chabbewal (reserved) seat.
Meanwhile, the Shiromani Akali Dal is yet to announce its candidates for all four assembly seats.