Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday announced the names of candidates for the upcoming Parliamentary and Assembly bypolls in Punjab and Odisha respectively.
Bypolls are scheduled to be held in Punjab’s Lok Sabha constituency of Jalandhar (SC) and Odisha’s Assembly constituency of Jharsuguda on May 10, the results of which will be declared on May 13, coinciding with those of Assembly elections in Karnataka. The BJP has fielded Sardar Indar Iqbal Singh Atwal for the Jalandhar (SC) bypoll and Tankadhar Tripathy for the Jharsuguda bypoll.
Both names were declared by the party’s Central Election Committee on Wednesday evening.
Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency has been vacant since January this year following the demise of Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary who collapsed while walking alongside Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra on January 14. He passed away due to a cardiac attack. The bypolls in the seat were necessitated after Chaudhary’s death.
Congress has announced Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, wife of Santokh Chaudhary, as its party candidate for the Jalandhar bypolls while Tankadhar will be contesting against BJD candidate Dipali Das and Congress’ Tarun Pandey.
“Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has approved the candidature of Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary as the party candidate to contest the forthcoming by-election to the Lok Sabha from 4-Jalandhar-SC parliamentary constituency of Punjab,” the party said in a statement, last month.
Meanwhile, the bypoll in Odisha’s Jharsuguda was necessitated by the killing of the then state health minister Naba Das after he was shot at by a policeman at point-blank range in broad daylight in Jharsugud district on January 29 this year.
Hours after being expelled from the Congress, Sushil Rinku on April 5 joined Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann.
The Congress party, citing indulging in “anti-party” activities, expelled Sushil Rinku, a former Congress MLA from Jalandhar West constituency, from the party.
“Sushil Rinku is welcome in AAP’s family, I have full hope that the people of Jalandhar will help us in winning the Lok Sabha bypolls,” Arvind Kejriwal said in a press briefing.