With the BJP fielding “outsider” candidates in two of the three seats it is contesting in Punjab for the Lok Sabha election, political experts feel it is likely to cause heartburn among local leaders, denting the party’s prospects.
The BJP is contesting the Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Amritsar seats, and its alliance partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal, the remaining 10.
Sunny Deol’s entry
In Gurdaspur, the BJP has fielded actor Sunny Deol in an attempt to wrest the seat from Sunil Jakhar, Congress MP. Mr. Jakhar won the seat in 2017 in the byelection following the death of Vinod Khanna, BJP MP. Vinod Khanna had won the seat in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014.
Soon after the BJP announced Mr. Deol as its candidate, voices of dissent were raised. Kavita Khanna, wife of Vinod Khanna, said she felt abandoned and rejected after being denied ticket. She, however, said she would not contest as an Independent and still had faith in the BJP.
‘Parachute candidates’
Ashutosh Kumar, Professor of Political Science at Panjab University, said “Star power works in India. BJP has always held immense faith in star charisma and it has worked for them also in the past. “The ‘parachute candidates’, though, could cause some discontent among local leaders and workers on the ground and it could slightly dent electoral prospects of the party,” he says.
As the BJP in Amritsar decided to field Union Minister Hardeep Puri over its former Punjab State vice-president Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, who was a frontrunner among aspirants, the Opposition was quick to attack the BJP for pitching an “outsider” as its candidate in the holy city.
Sampla upset
In Hoshiarpur, the BJP has bet on Som Parkash, an IAS officer, who is currently an MLA from Phagwara. Though Mr. Parkash is a local face, soon after his nomination for Hoshiarpur, the sitting BJP MP and Union Minister Vijay Sampla vented his ire on Twitter. He wrote: “It’s very sad, the BJP has committed cow slaughter.” Mr. Sampla even posted his “credentials” on Twitter, and asked the BJP to explain the grounds on which it denied him a renomination.
“Sunny Deol and Hardeep Puri are not locals and nominating them as candidates is definitely going to create some amount of heartburn in the local leadership and workers. When a candidate from ‘outside’ is fielded its quite natural that the enthusiasm of local workers or leaders is likely to be less due to lack of personal attachment,” Ronki Ram, Dean at the Department of Social Science at Panjab University, told The Hindu .
