Lok Sabha Polls-2024: Major political parties on “Wait and Watch” mode in fielding candidates for Ferozepur seat by AAP
Lok Sabha Polls-2024: Major political parties on “Wait and Watch” mode in fielding candidates for Ferozepur seat by AAP
Ferozepur, April 14, 2024: This time, having sufficient time for the political parties in Punjab to field their candidates, in the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls-2024 on June 1, all major political parties – BJP, Congress and SAD are on a wait and watch policing in fielding candidates for Ferozepur constituency, which is spread over three districts – Ferozepur Muktsar and Fazilka, especially by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in naming their candidate first.
None of these three non-BJP parties wants to name their nominees first for fear of probably not getting party tickets and switching over to another party. Besides, the caste combinations are also considered while deciding party tickets. The demographic and caste profile of the constituency is the deciding factor for fielding a particular candidate. The castes of the party and rival party candidates are deciding factors in the selection of the candidate by any political party.
On this, the old-timer political analyst stated the reason behind the non-fielding of candidates by all major political parties BJP, Congress, SAD and AAP as well are – one having sufficient time this time as the elections in Punjab at the end of the polls in the country on June 1 and second, watching each other’s candidates’ to field a candidate who could give tough fight, to make a winning situation.
In Ferozepur Lok Sabha, there are 9 constituencies – 76-Ferozepur City, 77-Ferozepur Rural, 78-Guruharsahai, 79-Jalalabad, 80-Fazilka, 81-Abohar, 82-Balluana, 85-Malout and 86-Muktsar. In total, there are 16,54,859 voters, who will elect one Member of Parliament from the Ferozepur constituency.
So far as the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019 are concerned, Sukhbir Singh Badal won the MP elections as a SAD candidate by securing 6,33,427 votes defeating Sher Singh Ghubaya, a candidate of Indian National Congress. The other candidates in the row were Harjinder Singh Kaka Sran of AAP who got 31,872 votes, Hans Raj Jossan 26,128 and 14,891 NOTA (None of the above) votes were polled. This time, so far none of the political parties have announced their candidate for the Lok Sabha 2024 elections but there are multiple claimants, around 14 claimants for MP from leading parties – BJP, Congress, SAD and AAP.
Currently, only SAD (Amritsar) has announced its candidate, Bhupinder Singh Bhullar from the Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat. He is a retired Inspector of the Punjab Police and father of slain gangster Jaipal Bhullar.
On the other hand, horse trading, and jumping of one party candidate to another party has also started in the state, besides levelling of allegations and counter-allegations. To this extent it is OK but making a violent situation is not good for the nation, state and common man. Recently, Vishav Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Nangal Unit President Vikas Bagga, known for his vociferous comments on Hindutva in the region, was murdered by unidentified assailants on Saturday.
Sources said the SAD and BJP are finding difficulty in selecting their candidates, especially in the absence of any alliance. Whereas, the Congress too, is considering former MLAs, including the parachuters to field in Ferozepur.
For Ferozepur, the claimants are more than two in each major political party, making it difficult to finally select a candidate to field. The win-win situation for any major political party would depend upon the support from the party leaders and workers, irrespective of any candidate of the ruling AAP party in the state. Out of 9 Lok Sabha constituencies, all the four MLAs in Ferozepur district are of AAP.
Since each party lands in the election with the hope of winning, no one wants to take risks in fielding its candidate and watch policy is going on, to see the weightage of the fielded candidate, especially by the AAP.
