Patiala Lok Sabha constituency: BJP’s Preneet Kaur vs AAP’s Balbir Singh, Congress’s Dharamvir Gandhi political fray

Preneet Kaur, BJP:

Preneet Kaur, BJP (PTI)

Preneet Kaur, a four-time Lok Sabha MP and former Union Minister of State for External Affairs, is the wife of former Punjab Chief Minister and BJP leader Amarinder Singh.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, contesting from the Congress party, Kaur won the Patiala seat by over 1.6 lakh votes, defeating Akali Dal’s Surjit Singh Rakhra, who had gotten 3,69,309 votes with 31.35 percent votes.

However, she was suspended by the Congress last year for alleged anti-party activities, joined the BJP on March 14, 2024, and will be contesting against AAP’s Balbir Singh in the forthcoming Lok Sabha 2024 elections for the Patiala seat.

Balbir Singh, AAP

Balbir Singh, AAP (File/ Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

Balbir Singh is a politician from Punjab who joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2014. In the 2017 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, the AAP fielded Singh against Amarinder Singh from the Patiala Rural Assembly constituency, but he lost the election and came in second place with more than 20,000 votes.

Currently, Singh serves as a cabinet minister in the Punjab government, holding the portfolios of health and family welfare, medical education and research, and elections, representing the Patiala Rural Assembly constituency as an MLA in the Punjab Assembly.

In the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Singh will be contesting for the Patiala parliament seat against Preneet Kaur, the current sitting MP who has recently joined the BJP.

Dharamvir Gandhi, Congress:

Dharamvir Gandhi, Congress (X/@DharamvirGandhi)

Dharamvir Gandhi, a former Member of Parliament from Patiala, joined the Indian National Congress (INC) in New Delhi on April 1, 2024 and is likely to be fielded as Lok Sabha election candidate for Patiala, from Congress. 

Gandhi was a Member of Parliament from Patiala from 2014 to 2019, having defeated Preneet Kaur of the Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as the candidate of the Nawan Punjab Party, which he had floated after falling out with the AAP in 2015, but lost to Kaur.