Lok Sabha bypolls: BJP fields Kewal Singh Dhillon from Sangrur; check names for Azamgarh, Rampur

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday (June 6) announced Kewal Singh Dhillon as the party candidate for the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypolls. "The BJP Central Election Committee has approved one name for the Lok Sabha bypolls in Punjab," IANS quoted BJP National General Secretary Arun Singh as saying.

Kewal Singh Dhillon was a two-term MLA on the Congress ticket. The bypoll was necessitated after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann resigned from his Lok Sabha membership. Mann won twice in 2014 and 2019 from the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency.

On Saturday, the BJP had announced party candidates for bypolls of two Lok Sabha and seven Assembly constituencies of different states.

Newly appointed Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha was fielded from the Town Bordowali Assembly constituency. Bhojpuri star Dinesh Lal Yadav `Nirahua` will contest from Azamgarh and Ghanshyam Lodhi from Rampur Lok Sabha seats.

June 6 is the last day of filing nominations for the Lok Sabha and Assembly bypolls. The polling will be held on June 23 and the counting of votes will take place on June 26.

Notably, the bypolls to two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh -- Azamgarh and Rampur -- have put the Samajwadi Party in a tight spot. The SP had won both seats in 2019. While Akhilesh Yadav won Azamgarh, Mohd Azam Khan won Rampur. Both the leaders resigned from their parliamentary seats after winning the Assembly elections in March this year.

The BJP and BSP seem to have joined hands to make the SP bite dust in Azamgarh, which has a sizeable Muslim and Yadav population and is known as an SP stronghold. The BSP has fielded Shah Alam, a.k.a. Guddu Jamali from Azamgarh with an eye on Muslim-Dalit votes.

In Rampur, the BJP has fielded Ghanshyam Lodhi, a former acolyte of Mohd Azam Khan. The BSP has already decided not to field its candidate from Rampur for reasons not disclosed.

The SP reportedly fears that losing Azamgarh and Rampur -- or even one of them -- would send out a message that Muslims are deserting the party and this would cast a shadow on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

(With Agency Inputs)