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Ferozepur LS seat: Suspended Congress MLA Sandeep Jakhar seeking votes for BJP’s Sodhi
Congress faces challenges in Ferozepur LS seat as legislator Sandeep Jakhar campaigns for BJP. Former MLA Raminder Awla stays away. Sher Singh Ghubaya is Congress candidate.
BATHINDA : Congress is facing an uphill task in the Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency as its legislator from Abohar Sandeep Jakhar is campaigning for the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) while the moneybag former MLA, Raminder Singh Awla, is staying away from electioneering.
The Congress has fielded former MP Sher Singh Ghubaya from the prestigious Lok Sabha seat.
Suspended in August last year for “anti-party” activities, Sandeep on Sunday was busy organising an election rally in support of the BJP nominee from Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi.
The first-time legislator from the politically influential Jakhar family, Sandeep said he would welcome the party (BJP) candidate Sodhi on Tuesday.
“Sodhi sa’ab is visiting Abohar after two days and I am actively engaged to consolidate support in the favour of the BJP. I have visited several villages and the urban areas of the constituency and my campaigning for the BJP is limited to Abohar,” he said.
The 47-year-old US-educated Sandeep is the nephew of BJP’s state unit chief Sunil Jakhar, a former president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), who had quit the Congress to join the saffron party in May 2022.
In the last few days, Sandeep has toured several villages, including Maujgarh, Panjkosi and Khuain Sarvar of his constituency Abohar seeking votes to seek votes for the BJP.
Sandeep is the second Congress MLA after Phillaur legislator Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary, who is canvassing in support of the BJP. Chaudhary had raised a banner of revolt against the Congress leadership after his hectic lobbying to get a ticket from the Jalandhar parliamentary seat was turned down.
Ferozepur seat is being represented by Shiromani Akali (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who has decided not to contest this time.
Sandeep is the only Congress MLA from the Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency but he has shifted his political loyalty to the saffron party.
Sailing on two boats, Sandeep said he would not resign as a legislator as the people of Abohar had elected him to serve them.
“I am firm to continue doing so in the broader interest of the society. When the Congress leaders served me a notice, I conveyed them categorically that my support for my uncle and political mentor Sunil Jakhar would remain intact. I am still on it and working to make the BJP win the parliamentary seat,” he added.
Another Congress leader from Ferozepur LS constituency and industrialist Raminder Awla is not showing any interest in electioneering.
Awla remained unavailable for comments as his staff said on Sunday that the leader was busy with some engagement.
In 2019, Awla had made an electoral debut by breaching the bastion of Sukhbir Singh Badal and winning the Jalalabad bypoll. In 2022 state elections, the moneybag leader did not contest as he was interested in contesting from his preferred seat of Guru Har Sahai and later that year, Awla was removed as AICC secretary in-charge of Karnataka.
