Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday announced party candidates for five constituencies for the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab.
Sitting MP Prem Singh Chandumajra will contest from Anandpur Sahib, Surjit Singh Rakhra from Patiala, bureaucrat-turned-politician Darbara Singh Guru from Fatehgarh Sahib, Bibi Jagir Kaur from Khadoor Sahib and Charanjit Singh Atwal will be in the fray from Jalandhar. The party is yet to announce five nominees from a total of 10 seats it is contesting in alliance with the BJP in Punjab.
Though the party had already decided to field Jagir Kaur and Atwal, formal announcement was made on Monday. The candidates for Sangrur, Ludhiana, Faridkot, Bathinda and Ferozepur will be announced later this week, a senior party leader said.
Here is a look at the political journey of the five candidates:
Bibi Jagir Kaur, Khadoor Sahib
The 64-year-old Bibi Jagir Kaur had a meteoric rise from a schoolteacher to becoming the SGPC president in 1999. An aggressive leader, she flaunts her panthic image as head of a dera in Begowal. After her acquittal in a case of abortion of her daughter in December last, she is seeking a political revival.
Darbara Singh Guru, Fatehgarh Sahib
The former bureaucrat, who remained principal secretary to former CM Parkash Singh Badal, is seen as a family confidante. The 66-year-old was inducted in SAD in 2012. He faced defeat in consecutive assembly elections in 2012 and 2017. He has been fielded in this Lok Sabha elections to fill in for Charanjeet Singh Atwal who is contesting from Jallandhar.
Prem Singh Chandumajra, Anandpur Sahib
Prem Singh Chandumajra, Anandpur Sahib
The old Akali warhorse was a protégé of former SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra who died in 2005. Chandumajra led some Akali splinter factions for a few years and then rejoined the Shiromani Akali Dal in 2007. The 69-year-old is one of the few leaders who possesses command over Akali idiom.
Charanjit Singh Atwal, 82, Jalandhar
Former deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha and speaker of Punjab Assembly is a Dalit face of the party. A staunch Badals loyalist who was reportedly seeking to contest from Fatehgarh Sahib, Atwal was shifted to Jallandhar as party doesn’t have a formidable face in Dalit-dominated constituency.
Surjeet Singh Rakhra, 61, Patiala
A moneybag and a docile leader, Rakhra came from the US to join politics in 1999 and gradually took full control of Akali turf in Patiala, superseding all local leaders there. He is guided by his two brothers who frequently keeping coming to Patiala. He was elected to the assembly from Samana.
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