Congress
Chandīgarh:Congress has released the list of four Congress candidates for the Punjab Assembly by-elections. The name of Amrita Wadding, wife of State Congress Committee president Amarinder Singh Raja Wadding, is also included in this list. The party has given him a ticket from the Gidderbaha assembly seat in Punjab. This seat fell vacant due to Vadding’s election as a Lok Sabha member.
Ticket to Kuldeep Singh Dhillon from Barnala seat
The party has given tickets to Kuldeep Singh Dhillon from Barnala state seat, Jatinder Kaur from Dera Baba Nanak and Ranjit Kumar from Chabbewal. Voting for the by-elections to four Punjab assembly seats will be held on November 13, while counting of votes will take place on November 23. The need for by-elections to four assembly seats arose because the MLAs representing these seats have been elected to the Lok Sabha.
BJP announced three candidates
Earlier, the BJP announced the names of candidates for three of the four assembly seats. The party has expressed confidence in the leaders who joined the BJP from other parties in these by-elections. The party has removed former Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal from the Gidderbaha seat. Badal quit the Congress and joined the BJP ahead of the 2023 Punjab Assembly elections.
BJP has given ticket to former MLA Kewal Singh Dhillon from Barnala seat. Dhillon has been an MLA from this seat twice on the Congress ticket. He was expelled from Congress accused of anti-party activities. Dhillon is considered very close to former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. The Barnala Assembly seat fell vacant after Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer was elected to the Lok Sabha. Hayer had won this seat in 2017 and 2022.
Banknote from Dera Baba Nanak to Ravikaran Kahlon
BJP has given ticket to Ravikaran Kahlon from Dera Baba Nanak assembly constituency. Kahlon was previously in the Shiromani Akali Dal but was expelled on charges of anti-party activities. In May this year, he joined the BJP. In the last assembly elections, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa won from Dera Baba Nanak. This seat fell vacant after Randhawa was elected to the Lok Sabha from Gurdaspur. The BJP has not announced any candidate from the Chabbewal seat. After the then MLA Raj Kumar Chabbewal was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur, it became necessary to hold elections for this seat.
