Punjab polls: BJP releases second list of 27 candidates, Congress and Akali turncoats get tickets
CHANDIGARH: National Commission for Scheduled Castes Chairman and former Union minister Vijay Sampla, Chairman of National Commission for Minorities and former Indian Police Service officer Iqbal Singh Lalpura and two sitting Congress MLAs Fateh Jung Bajwa and Harjot Kamal, who recently joined the saffron party, figure in the second list of 27 candidates released on Thursday by the BJP for the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab.
While Lalpura is contesting from Ropar, Sampla is in the fray in Phagwara. Two Congress MLAs who joined the BJP recently -- Fateh Jung Bajwa from Batala and Harjot Kamal from Moga -- have also been given tickets. Bajwa is the sitting Congress MLA from Qadian and younger brother of Congress Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa who is fighting these polls on a Congress ticket from Qadian and Kamal was the sitting Congress MLA from Moga in the outgoing assembly.
Former MLA Sarabjit Singh Makkar has been fielded from Jalandhar (Cantonment). He had recently joined the BJP after leaving the Akali Dal as he was not given a ticket. Meanwhile, Randeep Singh Deol will contest from Dhuri constituency against Bhagwant Mann -- the CM face of the AAP. Darshan Singh Shivjot is pitted against Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi from Chamkaur Sahib and Rakesh
Dhingra from Lambi against former five-time Chief Minister and SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal.
Some old-timers and senior leaders have been denied tickets by the party. Punjab BJP senior leader Harjit Singh Grewal, the most visible Sikh face of the party during the year-long farmers protest who was doing firefighting for the party and mediated between the government and farmers, has been denied a ticket from Rajpura as the party has fielded Jagdish Kumar Jagga who joined the BJP only on Wednesday evening. Jagga had contested the previous two elections as an Independent candidate.
The BJP has also denied a ticket to Arvind Mittal, son of former state cabinet minister Madan Mohan Mittal, and instead fielded a low-profile candidate Parminder Sharma.
The saffron party has given tickets to three women candidates in the second list -- former chief parliamentary secretary Seema Kumari from Bhoa (SC) who lost the last elections from there, Balwinder Kaur from Attari (SC) and Vandana Sangwan from Baluana (SC) reserve seat. In the first list, the party had given tickets to two women candidates.
The BJP has so far announced the names of 61 of its 65 candidates. The party is contesting the elections in alliance with Captain Punjab Lok Congress of Capt Amarinder Singh and Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) of Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa. The party had already realised a list of 35 candidates earlier.