Ignoring former member of Parliament (MP) Vinod Khanna’s widow Kavita Khanna’s claim for Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat which fell vacant due to the death of the actor-turned-politician, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday named Swaran Singh Salaria as its candidate for the Lok Sabha byelection scheduled for 11 October.
Salaria, 58, hails from Chauhana village of Bhoa Assembly segment in Gurdaspur and is a member of the BJP’s national executive.
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Salaria is a Mumbai-based millionaire businessman and had earlier tried to get ticket from Gurdaspur constituency.
Vinod Khanna, who was Gurdaspur MP between 1998-2009 and 2014-2017, passed away on April 27 this year. Kavita, who has looked after the constituency during Khanna’s hospitalisation and absence from the constituency, had expressed a desire to contest the election on BJP ticket.
Earlier, Amit Shah had ordered a field survey to assess the win-ability of ticket aspirants.
On Wednesday, the Congress nominated its Punjab unit president Sunil Jakhar, a loyalist of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, to contest Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-election scheduled on October 11.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday named Major General (retd) Suresh Khajuria as its candidate for the Gurdaspur parliamentary bypoll which is likely to witness the main contest between the ruling Congress and the BJP.
AAP which failed to win a single seat in the Gurdaspur Parliamentary constituency is likely to play the spoiler.
The last date for filing of nominations is September 22. Till date five candidates have filed their nominations for bypoll.
