Kavita Khanna, wife of late actor Vinod Khanna, has said that she will not further raise the topic of being denied the ticket from Gurdaspur, Punjab, by the BJP and that she will not make it a personal issue, according to reports in news agency ANI.
“It is my decision that I’m not going to make this a personal issue and make a personal sacrifice and put my entire might and support with Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Khanna, who was hoping to get the ticket from her late husband’s Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab’s Gurdaspur.
Khanna added, “I felt hurt because I understand the party has the right to decide the candidate but there is a way of doing it, and the way it was done I felt abandoned and rejected, I was made to feel insignificant.”
The BJP has fielded actor Sunny Deol from Gurdaspur after he joined the party on April 23, much to the disappointment of Kavita Khanna who had gone public with the displeasure.
Vinod Khanna had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1997 and was elected as the Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur for the first time in 1998, a feat he followed in 1999, 2004, and 2014 General Elections.
Vinod Khanna died of cancer in April 2017.
Punjab will vote in a single phase, on May 19, the last day of the seven-phased national election.