Punjab unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s list of probable candidates for 2014 lok Sabha elections has party’s senior national leader Arun Jaitley’s name for Amritsar parliamentary constituency.
The development is significant as the party, it seems, is looking beyond the candidature of Navjot Singh Sidhu. Sources said the party, in all, has shortlisted at least three names for each constituency, even as no formal announcement has been made. The final decision on the names, thus shortlisted, is to be taken by the party’s Central Parliamentary Board.
Out of the total 13 lok Sabha seats in Punjab, BJP would field its candidates on three — Amritsar, Gurdaspur, and Hoshiarpur — while the rest would be contested by its coalition partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Jaitley’s name has been short listed at a time when the three-time MP Sidhu has made it clear that he would not contest the elections from any other parliamentary constituency. Speculation was rife about Jaitley’s name since long. But, his name was formally shortlisted by the party’s State Election Committee in its first meeting on Thursday.
It is believed that considering the “poor” performance of the sitting MP and inimical relations with the SAD leaders, especially the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia, the party is looking at the possibility of parting ways with him. Frequent public outbursts of his MlA wife Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, and her rebellious attitude against own government despite being its part as the Chief Parliamentary Secretary has seemingly not gone down well with the party leadership.
Motormouth Sidhu’s defiant attitude bringing much shame to the ruling combine, after remaining absent from his constituency for almost a year, while making his presence on the small screen at the same time, coupled with a war of sorts against the SAD-BJP Government on the issue of “scuttling” his developmental projects for Amritsar and “ignoring” him in taking important decisions has virtually gone against him.
If this is not enough… Sidhu embarrassed his own party as repeated gag orders by the BJP high command fall on his deaf ears. His candidature was also in line of fire considering the narrow margin with which he won the 2009 parliamentary polls. Other than Jaitley and Sidhu, the party has selected the name of the State BJP’s vice-president Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, and party’s State general secretary Tarun Chugh.
For Gurdaspur parliamentary seat, the contenders are yesteryear Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna, who had won the seat thrice but lost in 2009 polls to the present Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa. Expecting to be the lone choice for the seat, Khanna has already started campaigning on his end. Also in the race are party leader and Mumbai-based industrialist Swaran Salaria, former Cabinet Minister Master Mohan lal and educationist and Vice-Chancellor of Sri Sai University SK Punj. Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) and sitting MlA from Phagwara Som Parkash is the frontrunner for the reserved Hoshiarpur seat. Other
than him, the name of Punjab State Forest Development Corporation chairman Vijay Sampla, and the party’s state unit chief of the SC Morcha Dilbag Rai has been added in the panel. Parkash, in 2009, contested from Hoshiarpur and lost by 366 votes to the sitting Union Minister of State for Family Welfare and Health Santosh Chowdhary.