Political parties’ in a fix to field right candidate for Assembly Elections in Ferozepur
Ferozepur, November 28, 2016: Political scenario will change on day today basis till the final announcement of candidates by the major political parties – Congress, BJP/SAD, AAP – which plays a central role in modern democratic elections, for the coming Assembly elections due in early 2017, yet to be formally announced
The political parties and candidates are key stakeholders in the election cycle and final selection of the candidate is a very sensitive issue which is somewhat determined by external forces.
During the last elections, in all, there were 12 candidates including 6 Independents. The winning candidate was Parminder Singh Pinki from Congress ticket securing 56,173 votes against the nearest rival Sukhpal Singh Nannu from BJP. The great set back to the BJP candidate was due to coming in field Ravinder Singh Sandhu alias Babbal who initially a Congress leader but switched over to Akali but contested as Independent on denying him the ticket and secured 18631 votes.
The other candidates fielded were by BSP, PPP, SAD(M), LJSP who could get very small votes in small four figures.
This time the Aam Aadmi Party –AAP has become active in whole of the state and expects to sweep for the majority under the national leader Arvind Kejriwal.
This time, AAP has fielded Ravinder Singh Sandha as its candidate from Ferozepur who unluckily has been involved in Wakf Board landed property case along with 13 others at a time when he has planned a big rally to be presided over by Bhagwant Mann in Ferozepur on November 30.
No doubt the ruling party is claiming about the vanish of AAP from the political arena of the state before the 2017 Assembly elections in the wake of ongoing ‘tug of war’ within the party, yet it is felt that AAP will give a tough fight wherever its candidate is fielded making it a triangular fight. Only the time will tell who is to going to be benefited in cutting the votes of BJP/SAD or Congress.
Another candidate of Yuva Morcha leader Gurparvez Selley as BJP candidate is in race for BJP seat but he is not popular among the voters as compared to Sukhpal Singh Nannu and Kamal Sharma. As per the sources, BJP is not going to take any risk in the fissure between the two leaders.
Sometime back, AAP supremo has spoken clearly on the selection of candidates only who falls within the criteria of 3 Cs – Crime free, Character free and Corruption. In case the AAP replaces the existing candidate, the party is likely to lose its credibility in selecting the candidate. It is, however, certain now that those who had earlier claimed for the ticket will get a chance to oppose and approach for fresh announcement of the ticket. Sources said, the party may give a second thought before replacing the announced candidate.
So far as Congress is concerned, there is no better choice than Parminder Singh Pinky whereas BJP in alliance with SAD too looks to be in a fix to repeat Sukhpal Singh Nannu, former CPS from Ferozepur or the other choice is Kamal Sharma, former BJP Punjab President and National Executive Committee Member of BJP and recently appointed as Chairman Manifesto Committee. Both these BJP leaders are on good terms and before fielding any of them, a firm commitment to fill up the vacuum with each other’s support has to be obtained, to give a tough fight to the Congress candidate.
