Punjab elections: BJP releases second list of 27 candidates

Former Union minister Vijay Sampla fielded from Phagwara, while Fateh Jung Bajwa and Harjot Kamal, who left the Congress for BJP recently, to contest from Batala and Moga, respectively

The BJP on Thursday released its second list of 27 candidates for the February 20 Punjab assembly elections and decided to field National Commission for Scheduled Caste chairman and former Union minister Vijay Sampla from Phagwara.

(From left) Former CM Capt Amarinder Singh, the founder of the Punjab Lok Congress, with Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda and Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) chief Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa in New Delhi earlier this week. (HT file photo)

Two sitting Congress MLAs Fateh Jung Bajwa and Harjot Kamal, who joined the BJP recently, were fielded from Batala and Moga assembly segments, respectively. While Kamal was representing Moga as the Congress MLA in the outgoing assembly, Bajwa is the Qadian legislator and the brother of Congress Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa.

The BJP has denied the party ticket to certain old-timers, including former minister Madan Mohan Mittal who was seeking the ticket for his son Arvind Mittal from Anandpur Sahib. Instead, the party fielded a low-profile candidate, Parminder Sharma, from the seat.

The party’s active Sikh face, Harjit Grewal, was also denied the ticket from Rajpura, where the party decided to field Jagdish Kumar Jagga, who had contested the previous two elections as an Independent candidate. Jagga joined the BJP only on Wednesday evening.

The BJP has given the ticket to National Commission for Minorities and former Indian Police Service officer Iqbal Singh Lalpura from Ropar.

The other candidates declared on Thursday are: Seema Kumari from Bhoa, Parminder Singh Gill from Gurdaspur, Kuldeep Singh Kahlon from Dera Baba Nanak, Pardeep Singh Bhullar from Majitha, Kumar Amit Valmiki from Amritsar West, Balwinder Kaur from Attari, Narenderpal Singb Channi from Shahkot, Surinder Mahe from Kartarpur, Sarabjit Singh Makkar from Jalandhar Cantonment, Darshan Singh Shivjot from Chamkaur Sahib, Sanjeev Vashisht from Mohali, Rajneet Singh Gehlewal from Samrala, Parveen Bansal from Ludhiana North, Gurparvez Singh Sandhu from Guru Har Sahai, Vandana Sangwan from Balluana, Rakesh Dhingra from Lambi, Dyal Singh Sodhi from Maur, Dheeraj Kumar from Barnala, Randeep Singh Deol from Dhuri, Gurpreet Singh Shahpur from Nabha, and Vikas Sharma from Ghannaur.

So far, the BJP has announced the names of 61 of its 65 candidates.

The party is contesting the elections in alliance with Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt).