Akali Dal releases first list of 7 candidates for Lok Sabha polls, relies on old faces

Let’s know more about the candidates:

Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema, 62, Gurdaspur

SAD spokesperson Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema has been named the candidate from Gurdaspur, though he hails from the Ropar area, was the MLA from 2012-2017 from this constituency on a SAD ticket and also the education minister from 2014-2017. Cheema was an adviser to chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in the SAD-BJP government from 2007 to 2012.

Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra, 74, Sri Anandpur Sahib

Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra is a SAD general secretary and spokesperson. He won the Anandapur Sahib Lok Sabha seat in 2014. He first entered the Punjab Assembly in 1985 by winning from Dakala in Patiala. He also became a cabinet minister for the Surjit Singh Barnala government.

In 1996, he defeated Congress’s Sant Ram Singla from Patiala, and later, in 1998, he defeated Capt Amarinder Singh from the same Lok Sabha seat. He lost to Congress’s Manish Tewari in 2019 and finished third in the Ghanaur Assembly seat in Patiala district in 2022.

N K Sharma, 53, Patiala

N K Sharma is a two-time former SAD MLA from the Derabassi constituency of Mohali. He won in 2012 and 2017. He remained a chief parliamentary secretary from 2012 to 2017. He is now the candidate from Patiala constituency to be pitted against the BJP’s Preneet Kaur and Aam Aadmi Party’s Dr Balbir Singh. Sharma is a famous realtor of Zirkpur as well.

Anil Joshi, 60, Amritsar

Anil Joshi will contest against BJP’s Taranjit Singh Sandhu in Amritsar. Joshi was originally with the BJP and had won on a BJP ticket twice from Amritsar North Assembly seat in 2007 and 2012. He served as local bodies minister from 2012 to 2017 in the SAD-BJP government. However, in 2021, he joined the SAD after being expelled from BJP for his differences with the party.

Bikram Singh Khalsa, Fatehgarh Sahib

He is a former SAD MLA from Khanna who won the seat in 2007 but lost from Raikot in 2012. Khalsa is the son of senior SAD leader Basant Singh Khalsa, a two-time former MP from Ropar constituency. 1977 Basant won his first election in 1977 on a SAD ticket and in 1996 as an Independent.

Rajwinder Singh, Faridkot

Rajwinder Singh is the grandson of senior SAD leader Gurdev Badal. He served as agriculture minister of Punjab and remained MLA from the Punjgrain constituency (now Jaitu in Faridkot) from 1997 to 2002. He was very active in Punjabi Suba movement in Punjab. Gurdev’s son Suba Badal lost in the 2022 Assembly polls from Jaitu, and now his grandson has been given a chance from this reserved seat. Gurdev Badal died on March 28, 2017.

Iqbal Singh Jhoonda, 62, Sangrur

Iqbal Singh Jhoonda, president of SAD’s Sangrur district, is the candidate from Sangrur. In 2007, he won from the Dhuri Assembly constituency of Sangrur and in 2012 from the Amargarh constituency of Malerkotla. He also served as a core committee member of the SAD and observer of the Sangrur, Barnala and Malerkotla districts. Jhoonda was in the news soon after the SAD’s poor performance in Punjab, and a committee under his supervision suggested many changes for reforms within the party. Sources revealed that Jhoonda had even attacked the leadership of Sukhbir Badal at that time as well, even though both continued to work together.