No surprises, BJP bets on Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal for Jalandhar bypoll

BJP names SAD ex-MLA Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal as its candidate for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, with nominations starting from Thursday onwards.

A day before nominations for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has named SAD ex-MLA Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal as its candidate.

Former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal had joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, party National General Secretary Tarun Chugh, party leader Vijay Rupani and others, at the party headquarters, in New Delhi on April 9. (ANI)

The development came late evening on Wednesday.

The nomination process for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll will start from Thursday onwards. Punjab chief electoral officer Sibin C said a notification would be issued for the election on Thursday and the last date for filing nominations is April 20.

All main political outfits have already initiated a poll campaign after naming their party nominees.

The BJP declared SAD ex-MLA Inder Iqbal, son of veteran Akali leader Charanjit Singh Atwal, as its candidate.

Charanjit Atwal, who remained the deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009 and speaker of the Punjab vidhan sabha twice, unsuccessfully contested 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Jalandhar constituency against Congress’ Santokh Singh Chaudhary. He unsuccessfully contested the state assembly polls from Kartarpur and Phillaur constituencies twice.

The BJP had party’s general secretary Rajesh Bagha, former chairman of the state commission for scheduled castes Raj Kumar Verka and former cabinet minister in the Congress government and former chief parliamentary secretary Avinash Chander in the race for the ticket.

Inder Iqbal won the state assembly election in 2002 from Koomkalan but faced defeat in the 2007 and 2017 polls.

The Congress was first to announce Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, wife of MP late Santokh Singh Chaudhary, whose death during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Joro Yatra on January 14 necessitated Jalandhar Lok Sabha byelection.

Meanwhile, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) named Congress ex-MLA Sushil Kumar Rinku as its candidate. Rinku’s candidature was declared a day after he joined the AAP. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have fielded a sitting MLA from Banga Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi as its nominee.

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Election schedule

Gazette notification: April 13

Last date for nomination: April 20

Scrutiny of papers: April 21

Withdrawal of candidature April 24

Date of poll May 10

Result May 13