Every 4th LS nominee in Punjab a turncoat

Of the total 52 candidates declared by the BJP, AAP, Congress and SAD, 14 crossed over to new parties

CHANDIGARH : One in four candidates of major political parties locked in a four-way fight in Punjab for the June 1 Lok Sabha election is a defector.

Of the total 52 candidates declared by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress, and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), 14 are turncoats who crossed over to their new parties in the past two-and-a-half-years and got rewarded with tickets. These major parties have named their candidates for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Though all four parties embraced defectors with open arms to reap political benefits, the BJP has given tickets to seven candidates, who switched from other parties during this period.

The AAP and Congress have fielded three such candidates each and the SAD has one.

A former Congress minister said four major parties are contesting all 13 seats in the state this time in the absence of any alliance and needed a total of 52 suitable candidates. “Ticket aspirants went to the party they felt suited them best and vice-versa,” he said, requesting anonymity.

Ashutosh Kumar, professor of political science at Panjab University, Chandigarh, attributed the phenomenon to a lack of non-partisanship and convergence of ideology of all parties except the Left parties. “Politics has become personality-oriented and parties lack organisational strength so when they recruit leaders, they expect them to bring along their followers. As for the BJP, it remained confined to three Lok Sabha seats for long and has tried to fill the gap in this manner to improve its prospects,” he said.

Among the turncoats fielded by the BJP, which is going solo and contesting all 13 Lok Sabha seats for the first time since 1996 after ally SAD ended ties, are sitting MPs, Preneet Kaur, Ravneet Singh Bittu and Sushil Kumar Rinku and former minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi . Of these, Rinku is the most conspicuous party-hopper, having changed parties twice in a year. Starting as the Congress MLA from Jalandhar West in 2017, Rinku switched to AAP in April 2023 ahead of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, necessitated by the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary. He won the seat to become the lone MP of the party in the lower house. After the AAP named him as its candidate from Jalandhar, he switched to the BJP on March 27.

Preneet and Bittu, Congress MPs from Patiala and Ludhiana, also crossed over to the BJP in March 2024. While Preneet’s switch was on expected lines as her husband, Capt Amarinder Singh, who was unceremoniously removed by the Congress leadership from the CM’s post, joined the BJP in September 2022, Bittu’s decision caught them unawares. Both are now trying to retain their seats as nominees of the BJP.

Sodhi, who was the sports minister in the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government, joined the BJP just weeks before the state assembly polls two years ago. He has been fielded from the Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat. Similarly, three- time MLA Manjit Singh Manna Mianwind , who joined the BJP from the SAD in January 2022, has been fielded from Khadoor Sahib. In the fray from Fatehgarh Sahib is Gejja Ram Valmiki who, too, had switched to BJP from the Congress in early 2022.

Among the defectors fielded by the AAP are sitting legislator Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal and ex-MLAs Gurpreet Singh GP and Pawan Tinu. Chabbewal and GP, who switched loyalties from the Congress in March this year, are contesting from Hoshiarpur and Fatehgarh Sahib, while Tinu, who jumped ship from SAD last month, is trying his luck from Jalandhar.

The turncoats on the Congress list are four-time MLA Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu (Bathinda), Amarjit Kaur Sahoke (Faridkot) and ex-MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi (Patiala). While Sidhu, a former Congressman, returned to the party from the SAD after nearly a decade, Gandhi, who made his Lok Sabha debut from AAP in 2014 and later floated his separate outfit, merged his party into the Congress on April 1. The SAD named ex-MP Mohinder Kaypee as its candidate from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat immedi- ately after he switched loyalties from the Congress on April 22 following “differences” with the party leadership.

Politics has become personality-oriented and parties lack organisational strength so when they recruit leaders, they expect them to bring along their followers. ASHUTOSH KUMAR, professor of political science at PU