Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) on Saturday announced that Punjab Ekta Party (PEP) president and Bholath MLA Sukhpal Khaira will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Bathinda constituency.

Announcing his candidature at a press conference here, Patiala MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi said Khaira has been in the forefront to raise the issues of Punjab for the past two decades.

Khaira said he is looking forward to take on Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is the sitting MP from Bathinda.

He dared Harsimrat and finance minister Manpreet Badal, who was the Congress candidate in Bathinda in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, to have a live debate with him at a place and time of their choice to discuss the burning issues of Punjab and Bathinda.

He said, “If Harsimrat changes her constituency to Ferozepur, Simarjeet Bains of the Lok Insaaf Party can contest against her as PDA candidate.”

“The Ferozepur seat had earlier been allocated to the CPI, another constituent of the PDA. But a few days ago, Bains had shown interest in contesting from Ferozepur in case Akali Dal fields Harsimrat from there. If that happens, we will sit together again to review our strategy,” said Khaira.

He also appealed to SAD (Taksali) leader Ranjit Singh Brahampura to withdraw his party’s candidate from Khadoor Sahib, former army chief Gen JJ Singh, in favour of PDA’s Paramjit Kaur Khalra.

First Published: Mar 16, 2019 21:55 IST