With the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party taking a lead in announcing candidates for all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, political analysts and a few BJP leaders fear that the delay in announcing its candidate could put BJP’s election campaigning on the back foot.
The ruling Congress in Punjab and AAP, which made a spectacular debut in 2014 Lok Sabha polls have both announced the names of their nominees for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The BJP on Sunday announced to field Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri from Amritsar constituency. The party, however, is yet to decide on its candidates for two seats – Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur. The BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) are alliance partners and out of total 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, SAD is contesting on 10 while the BJP is fighting on three seats.
Amid speculation that BJP could field a celebrity from Gurdaspur seat, actor Sunny Deol met BJP national president Amit Shah in Pune recently. However, Mr. Deol termed the meeting a “courtesy meeting” and nothing else.
“Party needs to announce the candidates soon and aspirants are getting restive. The filing of nomination papers for the elections will start (tomorrow) on April 22. The delay would leave very less time for canvassing. Candidates of opposite parties have already kicked-off their campaigns, more delay will put our candidates on the back foot,” said a senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity.
SAD is also yet to announce its candidates for the two key constituencies – Bathinda and Ferozepur. Both these seats are considered to be stronghold of Akali’s but the indecisiveness on candidates, according to political analysts gives an impression that party is still searching for “winnable” candidates.
Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the MP from Bathinda while from Ferozepur constituency Sher Singh Ghubaya, is the sitting MP, who successfully contested the 2014 general election as SAD candidate but later joined the Congress.
Badal from Ferozepur?
The Congress has fielded Mr. Ghubaya from Ferozepur while from Bathinda the party has announced Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, MLA from Gidderbaha seat as its candidate. Speculation is rife over Harsimrat Kaur Badal being renominated from Bathinda and SAD president and Punjab’s former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal contesting from Ferozepur.
“One reason of the delay in announcing candidates could be due to too many aspirants in the fray. But the indecision in clearing the names gives an impression that the party is still searching for ‘winnable’ candidate. In a small State like Punjab selecting candidates should not have been a tedious exercise unless the party is not able to find ‘winnable’ candidate,” Ashutosh Kumar, professor of Political Science at Panjab University told, The Hindu.
Meanwhile, AAP and Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) – the coalition of Bahujan Samaj Party, Punjabi Ekta Party, Lok Insaaf Party, Nawan Punjab Party, Communist Party of India (CPI), Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI) and Marxist Communist Party of India (U) have announced its candidates for all parliamentary seats.