LS polls: Khangura among frontrunners for AAP ticket from Ludhiana
Jassi Khangura, a former Congress legislator from Qila Raipur, who later joined the AAP ahead of 2022 assembly elections, is among the frontrunners for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency
Ludhiana : Jassi Khangura, a former Congress legislator from Qila Raipur, who later joined the AAP ahead of 2022 assembly elections, is among the frontrunners for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency.
According to party insiders, many AAP MLAs have suggested his name to the party’s top brass. The other candidates in the reckoning are Ahbaab Singh Grewal, who lost the 2019 assembly elections from Ludhiana West, Jagraon MLA Sarabjit Kaur Manuke and social activist Anmol Kwatra.
A firebrand leader, Khangura graduated from Oxford before returning to Punjab in 2007 and taking political a plunge by contesting the assembly elections from Qila Raipur after surrendering his British citizenship.
From the BJP, there is a buzz in political circles that former election commissioner Arun Goel, who resigned a few days ago, might be given the party ticket. Goel also served as the Ludhiana deputy commissioner in 1997-98. Goel was considered close to then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
SS Channy, former Punjab home secretary, and a close relative of former president Giani Zail Singh, is also an aspirant for the BJP’s ticket from Ludhiana.
The choice of candidate may not be easy for the saffron party as in the past, its erstwhile alliance partner Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) used to field candidate from Ludhiana. But it has leaders such as Gurdev Sharma Debi, state BJP cashier, Praveen Bansal and Anil Sarin and Sukhwinder Pal Singh Grewal, who are also vying for the ticket.
The equation is likely to change if the SAD and BJP stitch up an alliance.
Stakes are high for the ruling AAP as it has won eight assembly seats (in 2022) of the total nine in the parliamentary constituency.
Dakha MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali and former minister Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal are in the reckoning for the SAD ticket.
The Congress may again bank on sitting MP Ravneet Bittu if the party does not swap his constituency with Manish Tewari’s in Anandpur Sahib, which Bittu represented between 2009 and 2014, while Tewari represented Ludhiana during this period.