Congress has released the list of candidates for the by-elections to be held on four assembly seats in Punjab. According to the list released on Tuesday (22 October), ticket has been given to Amrita Wadding from Gidderbaha. She is the wife of Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh Raja Wadding. This seat has become vacant after Vading was elected as Lok Sabha member. Now the party has expressed confidence in his wife.
Apart from this, the party has given ticket to Kuldeep Singh Dhillon from Barnala seat, Jatinder Kaur from Dera Baba Nanak and Ranjit Kumar from Chabbewal.
Seats vacant due to MLAs becoming MPs
The need for by-elections on four assembly seats has arisen because the MLAs of these seats have been elected to the Lok Sabha. Barnala Assembly seat had become vacant after Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer was elected to the Lok Sabha. Hayer had won this seat in 2017 and 2022. After the then MLA Raj Kumar Chabbewal was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur, it became necessary to hold elections on this seat.
BJP fielded candidates on three seats
Earlier on Tuesday, BJP fielded its candidates on three seats. The party fielded former Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal from Gidderbaha seat. Badal had left Congress and joined BJP before the 2023 Punjab Assembly elections.
Former MLA Kewal Singh Dhillon has been given ticket from Barnala seat. Dhillon has been MLA from this seat twice on Congress ticket. He was expelled from Congress on charges of anti-party activities. Dhillon is considered very close to former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
Whereas BJP has given ticket to Ravikaran Kahlon from Dera Baba Nanak assembly constituency. Kahlon was earlier in Shiromani Akali Dal but he was expelled on charges of anti-party activities. In May this year, he had joined BJP. In the last assembly elections, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had won from Dera Baba Nanak. This seat had become vacant after Randhawa was elected to the Lok Sabha from Gurdaspur. BJP has not announced any candidate from Chabbewal seat.
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