Chandigarh: Three of the six candidates the BJP announced on Saturday are party hoppers, who joined it recently. Apart from fielding a former top diplomat, it has moved two MPs actor Sunny Deol and singer Hans Raj Hans.
The BJP, which announced its candidates for six of Punjab’s 13 seats, has named three-time MP, a Congress turncoat, Ravneet Singh Bittu, who has been fielded from Ludhiana and former Union minister Preneet Kaur, from Patiala, also a Congress turn coat.
While Bittu is the grandson of former chief minister late Beant Singh, who was assassinated by Khalistani ultra, Preneet Kaur is the wife of former chief minister Cap tain Amarinder Singh, who joined BJP in 2022. Kaur was suspended by the Congress for anti-party activities about a year ago.
The sole MP of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, Sushil Kumar Rinku, who joined BJP a few days ago, has been fielded from Jalandhar. Interestingly, even though Rinku was an- nounced as its candidate from Jalandhar (SC) seat by the AAP a fortnight ago, he jumped ship to the BJP and now he will contest on the BJP ticket.
On the remaining three seats, the BJP has fielded India’s former ambassador to US Taranjit Singh Sandhu from Amritsar seat, while its sitting MP from North West Delhi Hans Raj Hans has now been fielded from Faridkot and its three-time MLA from Sujanpur (Pathankot) Dinesh Singh Babbu has replaced sit- ting MP Sunny Deol for the Gurdaspur constituency
Congress Lambasts BJP
Meanwhile, Punjab Congress leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa lambasted BJP and al- leged it could not find its own party leaders from the state for the contest and was giving tickets to party hoppers.
Reacting to the BJP’s first list, former deputy chief minister Randhawa scoffed at the BJP saying on the one hand it was raising slogans of “ab ki baar 400 paar”, on the other it failed to find its own party leaders to contest in Punjab.
Notably, the northern state is set to witness a four- corner fight as the BJP and its former partner Shiro-mani Akali Dal will contest separately. It will be a first since 1996. The Akali Dal severed ties with the BJP in 2021 over the now-repealed three farm laws.
Furthermore, the Congress and the AAP, the two INDIA bloc constituents, are contesting separately in Punjab.
