Parties drop sitting MPs, only 7 of 13 in poll fray
The BJP, which won two seats in the 2019 elections in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), has replaced both its sitting MPs, actor Sunny Deol and Union minister Som Prakash, from Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur.
Chandigarh
Only seven of the 13 sitting MPs are in the fray for the June 1 Lok Sabha elections in Punjab due to the high rate of replacement, with three of them contesting from their new party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after having switched sides.
The remaining six incumbent MPs have been dropped or replaced by their parties.
The Congress, which had the highest number of seven sitting Lok Sabha members, is left with just two of them, Gurjeet Singh Aujla from Amritsar and Dr Amar Singh from Fatehgarh Sahib, in its line-up. The party has dropped two sitting MPs and shifted one to another constituency, whereas two others crossed over to the BJP.
Jasbir Singh Dimpa and Mohammad Sadique, who made their debut in the lower House from Khadoor Sahib and Faridkot in 2017, were replaced by the party with new candidates. Dimpa has been made convener of the election campaign committee constituted by the party on Tuesday, while Sadique is a member.
Another sitting MP, former Union minister Manish Tewari, who represented Anandpur Sahib in the 17th Lok Sabha, was shifted to the Chandigarh parliamentary constituency.
“The candidate selection was based on surveys done by the party with winnability being an important parameter. Both Sadique and Gill were facing opposition from a section of local leaders in their constituencies,” a senior state Congress leader said, requesting anonymity.
The remaining two incumbent members, Preneet Kaur and Ravneet Bittu, jumped ship to the BJP and have been fielded by the saffron party from the same constituencies. Preneet’s switch to the BJP was on expected lines after her husband Capt Amarinder Singh, who was unceremoniously removed from the chief minister’s post by the Congress, joined the saffron party in September 2022.
The BJP, which won two seats in the 2019 elections in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), has replaced both its sitting MPs, actor Sunny Deol and union minister Som Prakash, from Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur. Deol, who seldom visited his constituency, was replaced with a local candidate, three-time MLA Dinesh Babbu, while the central minister’s wife Anita Som Prakash got the party ticket in his place from Hoshiarpur.
Of the two sitting members of the SAD, only Harsimrat Kaur Badal, a three-time MP from Bathinda, is again in the fray. Her husband and Ferozepur MP Sukhbir Singh Badal has opted out to, in his own words, “lead the campaign of the party” in the state.
The AAP’s lone Lok Sabha MP, Sushil Rinku, who won the Jalandhar seat in the bypoll a year ago, defected to the BJP and is now contesting the election as its nominee.
SAD (Amritsar) MP Simranjit Singh Mann is again trying his luck from Sangrur, the seat he won in the 2022 bypoll.
Prof Jagrup Singh Sekhon, former head of the political science department at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, attributes the phenomenon of parties dropping or replacing their incumbent MPs to the failure of both to live up to the expectations of people. “People have high expectations from their elected representatives and parties these days. Once they elect someone, they expect him or her to be competent and proactive. Those who lose touch with the people find the going tough,” he said.