Punjab IAS officer Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu, who resigned as Punjab Mandi Board secretary a day before, has been named as SAD candidate from Mohali by party president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday.
Sidhu, the son-in-law of senior Akali leader and Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, had submitted his resignation on Monday to Punjab Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal.
58-year-old ex-serviceman-turned-bureaucrat has lobbied hard for the seat and said to have taken the local Akali leaders into confidence before testing the political waters from Mohali where he had also served as Deputy Commissioner.
Sidhu’s candidature is being hailed as a good choice by the political observers considering his clean image and familiarity and acceptability among the locals who have seen him as DC for around three years in the district.
Hailing from Muktsar, the home district of the Badal family, Sidhu has been serving as Punjab Mandi Board secretary since February this year. An IAS officer of the 2004 batch, he joined the Punjab Civil Services in 1989 and served on various important positions.
In the last Assembly elections, SAD nominee Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who later deserted the party and is serving as a Cabinet Minister in the Akhilesh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh, had lost to Congress candidate Balbir Singh Sidhu by a margin of 16,752 votes.
With this, the party has announced the names of its 89 candidates, out of 94 it contests in 117-seat Vidhan Sabha in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Only a day before, the party has fielded son-in-law of its another senior leader and three-time MlA from Bholath Bibi Jagir Kaur.Yuvraj Bhupinder Singh, 41-year-old, is the husband of Bibi’s younger daughter, and is serving as Kapurthala Zila Parishad chairman for four years.
Besides, the party on Monday had also announced founder managing director of Nabha-based Preet Tractors Hari Singh as its candidate from Dhuri.