Manpreet, Kewal Dhillon, Ravi Kahlon BJP’s picks for bypolls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced three candidates, including former state finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, for the bypolls to assembly seats in Punjab.
The bypolls to four assembly seats —Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala — were necessitated after MLAs representing them were elected to the Lok Sabha. The bypolls will be held on November 13 and votes will be counted on November 23.
BJP leader and former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal has been fielded from the Gidderbaha assembly seat, according to the party’s list of candidates.
Ravi Karan Singh Kahlon will contest from Dera Baba Nanak and Kewal Singh Dhillon from Barnala.
Manpreet, who started his political career by winning the Gidderbaha bypoll in 1995 as a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) nominee, contested last from this segment in 2012 when he parted ways with the SAD and formed his own political outfit — People’s Party of Punjab (PPP). He lost badly from this seat and stood third.
Manpreet had been elected from Gidderbaha on SAD ticket four times — in 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2007. He won from Bathinda Urban in the 2017 assembly polls on a Congress ticket, but lost this seat in the 2022 assembly polls.
The five-time legislator, Manpreet got an opportunity to handle state’s finances during the Parkash Singh Badal and Captain Amarinder Singh’s regimes. He joined the BJP in January 2023 after quitting the Congress. Stakes are high for this Badal scion this time as he is contesting polls for the first time as a BJP nominee.
Former CM and SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal represented Gidderbaha for five consecutive terms from 1969 to 1985 before he handed over the political baton of the segment to his nephew Manpreet in 1995. Manpreet’s win in 1995 is said to have resurrected the Akali politics and it formed the government in Punjab in 1997 in alliance with the BJP.
The BJP has not declared candidate for Chabbewal reserved segment as efforts are being made to field Harminder Singh Sandhu, an AAP leader who had contested 2022 assembly polls from the segment. Sandhu is upset with the AAP leadership after the ruling party fielded Ishaan Kumar, son of sitting Hoshiarpur MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal, from the seat.
The Congress and the AAP leadership is also making efforts to woo Sandhu. BJP is likely to announce candidate for this reserved seat on Thursday, party insiders said.
Ravi Karan Kahlon, whom the party has picked from Dera Baba Nanak seat, is a son of former Punjab assembly speaker and Akali stalwart Nirmal Singh Kahlon.