Punjab: AAP picks ex-BJP leader Mohinder Bhagat as Jalandhar West byelection candidate
The July 10 byelection was necessitated after AAP MLA Sheetal Angural resigned from the assembly and joined the BJP in March.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday announced Mohinder Bhagat, 64, as its candidate for the July 10 byelection in Jalandhar West assembly constituency.
Bhagat is a son of former cabinet minister and veteran BJP leader Chunni Lal Bhagat. He unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections from the constituency as a BJP candidate in 2022.
The byelection was necessitated after sitting AAP MLA Sheetal Angural resigned after joining the BJP in March.
After polling is held on July 10, the result will be declared on July 13.
Mohinder Bhagat has contested twice from Jalandhar West on the BJP ticket. He was chairman of the medium industries development board of Punjab from 2007-11. He was also the BJP’s Punjab vice-president from 1998-2001 and 2017-20.
He joined the AAP in the run-up to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election in May last year. He was the AAP’s Jalandhar West constituency in-charge after its MLA Angural joined the BJP and quit the assembly.
In 2022, Angural had won on the AAP ticket with the margin of 4,253 votes from then Congress nominee Sushil Kumar Rinku. Mohinder Bhagat polled 33,486 votes, while Angural got 39,213 votes. Rinku polled 34,960 votes and the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Anil Meena got only 4,125 votes.