The Election Commission of India on Monday announced the election schedule for Punjab’s five, out of a total of seven, Rajya Sabha seats on March 31. The term of Punjab’s five Rajya Sabha members — Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Partap Singh Bajwa, Shwait Malik, Naresh Gujral, and Shamsher Singh Dullo — is set to end on April 9.
Among these, Bajwa and Shamsher Singh Dullo are of the Congress; Dhindsa, who was nominated as Shiromani Akali Dal member, now head Akali Dal (Sanyukt), Naresh Gujral is of Shiromani Akali Dal; and Shwait Malik is of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bajwa is Congress’ former state president and had won the Lok Sabha election from Gurdaspur in 2009. He had also served as a Minister in the State Governments led by Beant Singh, Rajinder Kaur, and Capt Amarinder Singh. Dullo is also a former state Congress president and a prominent Dalit leader. He was also elected to the 13th Lok Sabha from Ropar.
Dhindsa was a Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from 2000 to 2004. He was earlier a member of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) but then fell out with the Badal family and in 2020 proclaimed himself the president of SAD. He later became the president of SAD (Sanyukt) which was formed following the merger of SAD (Democratic) and SAD Taksali, which was led by him.
Gujral is the son of former Prime Minister IK Gujral and one of the most prominent voices of SAD. Shwait Malik is a former Mayor of Amritsar who was also appointed the state president by the BJP in 2018.
In its notification, the Election Commission (EC) said: “Out of the five seats to be filled from Punjab, three are to be filled by holding one election and other two through another election as these seats belong to two different biennial cycles.”
The nominations for the Rajya Sabha from Punjab will depend on the performance of parties in the February 20 assembly polls, the result of which will be declared on March 10.
The notification for the biennial elections will be issued on March 14 and the polls will be held on March 31. As per established practice, the counting will be held on the day of polling from 5 pm onwards.
Interestingly, the current House has not been able to vote even once to elect the Rajya Sabha member. Also, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would participate in the election process to elect the Rajya Sabha MP for the first time.
AAP, which debuted in the 2017 assembly elections, has still not been able to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections. The party had won 20 seats in the polls to the 117-member House and had won four Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2014 and one in 2019.
