The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday announced the named of its candidates for the Meghalaya and Punjab by-polls. In Meghalaya a bypoll was due for the Gambegre Assembly constituency, while in Punjab, bypolls were due to be held for the Gidderbaha, Barnala, Chabbewal, and Dera Baba Nanak seats.
The BJP has fielded Bernard Marak from Meghalaya's Gambegre (ST) assembly seat. In Punjab, the saffron party has fielded Ravikaran Kahlon from Dera Baba Nanak and Kewal Singh Dhillon from Barnala. Former Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal has been fielded from the Gidderbaha assembly constituency.
Badal has served as the Gidderbaha MLA for four times in a row, contesting on the Shiromani Akali Dal ticket in 1995, 1997, 2002, and 2007. He lost the fifth time in 2012 when he contested on a ticket from the People's Party of Punjab. He then joined Congress and won from Bathinda in 2017, but faced a crushing defeat in 2022 from the same seat, which even cost him his security deposit. The 62-year-old stayed away from politics for some time before joining the BJP in January 2023.
The by-election in the seat will be held on November 13 and the results will be declared on November 23. The need for the bypoll was necessitated after Saleng A. Sangma, who resigned after being elected to the Tura Lok Sabha seat earlier this year after winning the Lok Sabha polls. It will likley be a four-cornered contest in Gambegre.
The ruling National People’s Party (NPP) has fielded Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s wife Mehtab Chandee Sangma, while the Trinamool Congress has chosen Sadhiarani M. Sangma, wife of former MLA Zenith Sangma, to contest the seat. Meanwhile, Congress had named Jingjang M. Marak as candidate for by-election.
The Punjab bypolls for four assembly seats-- Chabbewal (SC), Barnala, Dera Baba Nanak, and Gidderbaha-- which were necessitated by the election of the current MLAs to the Lok Sabha earlier this year, will be held on November 13. The counting of votes will take place on November 23.
These bypolls are a battle of prestige for the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. In the Gidderbaha seat, the Congress MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, won the Ludhiana parliamentary seat, while Congress MLA from Dera Baba Nanak seat, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, got elected from Gurdaspur parliamentary seat.
Similarly, AAP MLA from Barnala, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, was elected as the MP from Sangrur seat earlier this year.
Raj Kumar Chabbewal, former Congress leader and AAP MLA from Chabbewal, was won the Lok Sabha elections from the Hoshiarpur (SC) seat, thereby vacating the assembly seat.
