CHANDIGARH: With Navjot Kaur Sidhu, the medico-wife of national BJP general secretary Navjot Sidhu, getting the party ticket from Amritsar (East) on Wednesday and Professor Rajinder Bhandari bagging the nomination from Ludhiana (West) two days back, the BJP has acquired its own political-VIP quotient. It has also now made seat swapping arrangement between SAD and BJP complete.
However, Navjot Kaur is not the only star addition in BJP camp. Vijay Laxmi Bhado, who has been given the party ticket from Abohar, happens to be the mother-in-law of Haryana CM's daughter and is at present the chairperson of Punjab Social Welfare Board.
BJP released the names of candidates for remaining three seats on Wednesday, thus completing its list of 23 candidates and ending speculation on the seat-sharing ratio between the two alliance partners in the state. It swapped two seats of Batala and Garhshankar with SAD's Amritsar (East) and Ludhiana (West), primarily to adjust some senior leaders who have found themselves without their old constituencies after the delimitation process. The much-anticipated rebellion by local alliance partners is yet to raise its head, much to the relief of senior leaders of the two parties.
The complete list has nine new faces, including that of party's state president Ashwani Sharma from Pathankot, Bishan Das Dhupad from Dinanagar (SC), Seema Devi from newly carved Bhoa (SC), Parveen Bansal from Ludhiana (North), Vijay Laxmi Bhado from Abohar, Rakesh Gill from Amritsar (West), Navjot Kaur from Amritsar (East), Tarun Chugh from Amritsar (Central) and Som Prakash from Phagwara.
Som Prakash, a former bureaucrat, had earlier contested as Lok Sabha candidate from Hoshiarpur and lost to Congress' Santosh Chaudhary by a wafer-thin margin. Chugh was brought in for Amritsar (Central) after BJP's firebrand woman leader and Punjab minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla declared her plans last year, to not contest elections any more.
However, Navjot Kaur is not the only star addition in BJP camp. Vijay Laxmi Bhado, who has been given the party ticket from Abohar, happens to be the mother-in-law of Haryana CM's daughter and is at present the chairperson of Punjab Social Welfare Board.
BJP released the names of candidates for remaining three seats on Wednesday, thus completing its list of 23 candidates and ending speculation on the seat-sharing ratio between the two alliance partners in the state. It swapped two seats of Batala and Garhshankar with SAD's Amritsar (East) and Ludhiana (West), primarily to adjust some senior leaders who have found themselves without their old constituencies after the delimitation process. The much-anticipated rebellion by local alliance partners is yet to raise its head, much to the relief of senior leaders of the two parties.
The complete list has nine new faces, including that of party's state president Ashwani Sharma from Pathankot, Bishan Das Dhupad from Dinanagar (SC), Seema Devi from newly carved Bhoa (SC), Parveen Bansal from Ludhiana (North), Vijay Laxmi Bhado from Abohar, Rakesh Gill from Amritsar (West), Navjot Kaur from Amritsar (East), Tarun Chugh from Amritsar (Central) and Som Prakash from Phagwara.
Som Prakash, a former bureaucrat, had earlier contested as Lok Sabha candidate from Hoshiarpur and lost to Congress' Santosh Chaudhary by a wafer-thin margin. Chugh was brought in for Amritsar (Central) after BJP's firebrand woman leader and Punjab minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla declared her plans last year, to not contest elections any more.