Jalandhar West byelection: Congress, AAP, SAD candidates file papers
Surinder Kaur (Congress), Mohinder Bhagat (AAP) and Surjit Kaur (SAD) set up keen contest after filing nominations on last day
Congress candidate Surinder Kaur, Aam Aadmi Party’s Mohinder Bhagat and Shiromani Akali Dal nominee Surjit Kaur filed their papers on the last day of filing nominations on Friday for the Jalandhar West byelection to be held on July 10.
The bypoll was necessitated after sitting AAP MP from Jalandhar West Sheetal Angural resigned as MLA on March 28 after joining the BJP in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. His resignation was accepted by Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan on May 30.
Accompanied by leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi and party MLAs, Congress nominee Surinder Kaur submitted her nomination papers with the returning officer Alka Kalia. Earlier, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring visited Surinder’s house. A five-time municipal councillor, Surinder was former senior deputy mayor of Jalandhar.
Channi said the Congress has given the ticket to a worker who has been associated with the party for over 50 years. “Other parties don’t have candidates of their own as both BJP’s Angural and AAP’s Bhagat are turncoats,” he said.
Will go all out to retain seat: AAP
AAP nominee Bhagat was accompanied by state ministers Harpal Singh Cheema, Aman Arora and Hoshiarpur MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal. Cheema said the AAP will go all out to retain the seat.
“Meetings are on to prepare a detailed strategy for the byelection. We will take the development works done by the AAP government in the past two-and-a-half years to voters of Jalandhar West,” he said.
On the AAP’s below par performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections, Cheema said chief minister Bhagwant Mann is reviewing the reasons behind the loss and corrective steps will be taken.
“The Lok Sabha polls were fought on entirely different issues but we will fight the Jalandhar West byelection on state issues and will ensure the party wins,” he said.
Arora said BJP nominee Angural, who was an AAP MLA from this segment earlier, not only deceived the party but also backstabbed the people of Jalandhar West who elected him in 2022.
“The people will teach him a lesson this time,” he said.
Drugs, law and order issues: Jagir Kaur
SAD candidate Surjit Kaur, a two-time councillor, was accompanied by SAD leaders Jagir Kaur and former MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee when she filed her nomination papers. Jagir Kaur said Surjit and her family had remained loyal to the party and added that the party would highlight the issues of drug abuse and poor law and order in its campaign.
The SAD has not contested the Jalandhar West assembly elections for the past two decades as the seat was allotted to the BJP when both the parties had an alliance till 2020.
In the 2022 assembly polls, the SAD had joined hands with the BSP and allotted this seat to its coalition partner but is candidate Anil Meena got only 4,125 votes. In the June 1 Lok Sabha elections, Jalandhar SAD candidate Kaypee got only 2,623 votes in the constituency that was once his stronghold.