CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal on Monday announced its candidates for five of the ten Lok Sabha seats it is contesting in Punjab.
Party president Sukhbir Singh Badal said Bibi Jagir Kaur, the former president of the Shiromani Gurduwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), will contest from Khadoor Sahib, while Charanjit Singh Atwal, who is a former Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and former Speaker of the Punjab assembly, will enter the fray from the reserved seat of Jalandhar.
Professor Prem Singh Chandumajra, the senior vice-president of the party and sitting Member of Parliament from Anandpur Sahib, has been fielded from the same seat. Former state cabinet minister Surjit Singh Rakhra will be the party nominee from Patiala and former IAS officer Darbara Singh Guru will contest the polls from the reserved seat of Fatehgarh Sahib.
The Akali Dal had cleared the names of these candidates before the official announcement on Monday and they had already launched their campaigns.
The party is yet to declare its candidates from Bathinda, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Faridkot and Sangrur. The candidates for these constituencies will be announced shortly, Sukhbir Singh Badal added.
The buzz is that Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the sitting MP from Bathinda and wife of Sukhbir Singh Badal, may re-contest from here, while Sukhbir Singh Badal himself might jump into the fray from Ferozepur and former state finance minister Parminder Singh Dhinsa could be fielded from Sangrur.
SAD's alliance partner BJP is yet to declare its candidates from the three seats it is contesting in the state: Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur.