CHANDIGARH: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced the list of three more candidates for Lok Sabha elections in Punjab as the saffron party has given two women tickets. Former IAS officer Parampal Kaur Maluka has been fielded from Bathinda and Anita Som Parkash, wife of Union Minister Som Parkash, will contest from Hoshiarpur. Thus three ladies have been given tickets by the saffron party till date.
The saffron party announced the name of Manjit Manna from Khadoor Sahib. He is former Baba Bakala MLA. The ruling party dropped Union Minister of state for Commerce and Industries Som Parkash from Hoshiarpur citing his age but decided to field his wife Anita Som Parkash to keep the influential local leader’s support intact.
The 70-year old Anita, for past decades, ran a community kitchen in Phagwara for the needy and is considered the brain behind Parkash’s political career. Hoshiarpur, a reserved seat is regarded as a saffron party stronghold. The BJP has won this seat for the past two terms.
It has fielded former IAS officer Parampal Kaur Sidhu from Bathinda. She is the daughter-in-law of senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Ex-minister Sikander Singh Maluka. Kaur is likely to face former Union minister and three-time sitting MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Harsimrat is the wife of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Kaur a philosophy and zoology postgraduate was posted as Managing Director of the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation and Additional Director, PUNGRAIN. She had sought voluntary retirement from service.
In the early 1990s, she became the first woman block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) in the state. She was promoted as district development and panchayat officer when her father-in-law SS Maluka was the Rural Development and Panchayats Minister of Punjab and then her case was sent to the UPSC for direct induction to the IAS through the nomination route joining as non-state civil services IAS officer on January 15, 2016. Her superannuation was due in October this year.
On Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party released its inaugural list of six candidates, including three turncoats for the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab. While Ravneet Singh Bittu was given a ticket from Ludhiana, Sushil Kumar Rinku a former AAP MP who joined BJP was fielded from Jalandhar. Rinku had won the Lok Sabha bypolls from the same seat last year.
Preneet Kaur, Congress MP and wife of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, was fielded from Patiala as she switched allegiance to BJP earlier in March. Hans Raj Hans, a renowned Sufi singer-turned-politician, and Taranjeet Singh Sandhu, a retired Indian diplomat will contest from Faridkot and Amritsar, respectively.
So far, the saffron party has announced nine candidates in Punjab.
