LS Polls: BJP Unable To Find Own Party Men To Field Them From Punjab, Says Sukhjinder Randhawa

CHANDIGARH: Senior Punjab Congress leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Sunday slammed the BJP, accusing it of not having been able to find its own party men for fielding them from the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. His remarks came a day after the BJP announced its first list of six candidates for Punjab, fielding three turncoats' Preneet Kaur, Sushil Kumar Rinku and Ravneet Singh Bittu, and former diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu.

Besides, the saffron party also fielded singer and MP from North West Delhi Hans Raj Hans and former MLA Dinesh Singh Babbu. "On one hand, the BJP has given a slogan of 'ab ki baar 400 paar' and on the other hand, it has not been able to find its own party members who can be fielded for fighting from Punjab," Randhawa said reacting to the BJP list.

Escalating his attack on the BJP, the former Punjab deputy chief minister lashed out at the saffron party for fielding candidates who joined it after leaving other political parties. The Congress leader said not only in Punjab, the BJP fielded candidates from other parties in Haryana as well. The BJP found it difficult to find its leaders to field them, he said as he spoke about the saffron party's first list of candidates for Punjab.

Randhawa was pointing towards BJP's Patiala candidate Kaur, Jalandhar nominee Rinku and Ludhiana candidate Bittu. Four-time MP and former Union minister Kaur joined the BJP this month. She was suspended by the Congress in February last year soon after her husband, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, joined the BJP.

Rinku was fielded from the Jalandhar seat, four days after he joined the BJP in Delhi. Former Congress MLA Rinku had been named the candidate by the AAP but he quit the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit in less than a year after joining it. Rinku had joined the AAP on April 5 last year in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann in Jalandhar.

Rinku was fielded from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat in the by-election and won it after defeating Congress candidate Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary by a margin of 58,691 votes. The BJP also fielded three-time MP Bittu from the Ludhiana seat. Bittu was the third Congress leader, who jumped ship after former MLAs Gurpreet Singh GP and Raj Kumar Chabbewal left the Congress to switch sides in less than three weeks.

He had remained an MP twice from Ludhiana and once from Anandpur Sahib. Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated in a terror attack in 1995.