SAD RELEASES LIST OF 64 CANDIDATES FOR PUNJAB POLLS

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday announced its candidates for 64 assembly seats for the upcoming polls in Punjab.

While party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal will fight from Jalalabad, former ministers Tota Singh, Janmeja Singh Sekhon, Daljit Singh Cheema and Sharanjit Singh Dhillon will contest from Dharamkot, Zira, Rupnagar, and Sahnewal, respectively.

Though the party had earlier announced names of 24 candidates, it released a complete list of 64 candidates on Monday for the 2022 state assembly polls.

In June, the SAD had formed an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for the 2022 elections. According to the seat sharing arrangement, the Mayawati-led BSP will fight 20 of the 117 assembly seats in Punjab, while the rest will be contested by the SAD.

The SAD had last year quit the Bjp-led National Democratic Alliance over the farm laws issue. When the SAD had an alliance with the BJP, it contested on 94 seats, while the saffron party fought on 23 seats.

Among the candidates, Adaish Partap Singh Kairon, the son-in-law of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has been fielded from Patti seat.

From Ludhiana East, Ludhiana Central and Ludhiana West, the party fielded Ranjit Singh Gill, Pritpal Singh Pali and Maheshinder Singh Grewal, respectively.from Fazilka, Rajpura, Amritsar North, Amritsar West, Sujanpur, Jalandhar Central, Mukerian, the party named Hans Raj Josan, Charanjit Singh Brar, Anil Joshi, Dalbir Singh Verka, Raj Kumar Gupta, Chandan Grewal and Sarabjit Singh Saabi, respectively.

The BJP used to field its candidates from these 10 seats when it had an alliance with the SAD.