Top three contenders from Sangrur
Though 21 candidates are in fray, the contest seems to be among Vijay Inder Singla of Congress, Sukhdev Dhindsa of SAD and Bhagwant Mann of AAP.
Though 21 candidates are in fray, the contest seems to be among Vijay Inder Singla of Congress, Sukhdev Dhindsa of SAD and Bhagwant Mann of AAP.
Vijay Inder Singla, 43 (Congress)
Vijay Inder Singla is the son of Sant Ram Singla, who was a Congress MP. Despite being an outsider, Vijay Singla had helped the party win the Sangrur seat after 18 years when he beat SAD candidate Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa by around 40,000 votes. His political career began with Punjab Youth Congress as general secretary in 2002. He was appointed chairman of Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) in 2005 by the then chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh. He remained president of Punjab Youth Congress from 2006 to 2008.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD)
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader and loyalist of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal is a sitting Rajya Sabha member. Dhindsa started his political career in 1972, when he was elected as MLA.
Earlier, he represented Sangrur Lok Sabha seat and was union minister of sports and chemicals and fertilsers in Atal Bihari government from 2000 to 2004. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha from 1998 to 2004. His son, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, is the Finance Minister in Punjab government.
Bhagwant Mann (AAP)
The comedian-turned-politician is contesting his first Lok Sabha elections. Earlier, he contested the assembly polls against former Punjab chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal from Lehragaga assembly seat for Manpreet Badal's People's Party of Punjab (PPP). He got only 21,000 votes and lost the elections. Recently parted ways with PPP and joined the Aam Aadmi Party.