The general elections are just round the corner. Now is the time when speculations about possible contestants to this great battle of ballot start taking definitive shape. Various political parties hold their close door meetings and start arriving at decisions about their alliances, seat adjustments and finally the faces that will represent them in the biggest battle of votes.
In the last few days, some alliances and seat adjustments were given a final shape by the joint leadership of both Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The two alliance partners of I.N.D.I.A. Have finally come to an understanding for the ensuing general elections.
The two arrived at a consensus that the line Chandigarh seat would go to Congress , AAP will contest four of seven Delhi seats while Congress will put up its candidates in the remaining three.
They have also come to an agreement about seat adjustment in both Haryana and Gujarat while Congress will have a major say and AAP gets token representation.
The agreement has set the electioneering in full throttle in Chandigarh from where the BJP may replace its two-time sitting candidate Bollywood star Kiron Kher. After the Supreme Court’s landmark intervention, the BJP was finding it hard to hide its face. The party high command is thinking of putting an outsider with local acceptability and the name that started going rounds has been of Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur.
Though there may be a couple of aspirants for the seat from amongst the local unit, but in all probability the High Command would not crane chances against AAP-Congress combined to whom it lost the Mayor’s post. So keep your fingers crossed.
Congress too has three candidates in the run including sitting Hoshiarpur MP Manish Tewari and former Union Minister Pawan Bansal and the Chandigarh unit President HS Lucky in the run.
It is most likely to be a head-on contest between NDA and INDIA in Chandigarh.
Also there are speculations about another Bollywood star paving way for a new candidate in the region. Sitting MP from Gurdaspur Sunny Deol is reportedly not keen to contest again. He is one of nine MPs who did not speak a word in the last term. So his decision not to contest is understandable as he feels politics is not his cup of tea.
So as things stand today, two Bollywood stars would be missing when BJP comes out with its list of candidates for Punjab and Chandigarh. Any takers?
(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience of 14 years with Reuters News and 30 years with The Tribune Group, covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows.)
