Taranjit Sandhu Might Contest from Chandigarh
NEW DELHI : After joining the saffron Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former Ambassador of India to United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu has hinted to contest as party candidate from crucial Amritsar for Lok Sabha seat.However, if the party sources here are believed, the BJP is looking for a new face for Chandigarh parliamentary seat and Sandhu could be the choice for `city beautiful`.
The sources said that the party is in catch-22 situation as fielding Sandhu in Amritsar is facing resistance from the general public and even local party cadre. In Amritsar and Gurdaspur, the BJP is receiving the brickbats for fielding ‘outsiders’ who first of all do not emerge winner. And if they win they vanish after elections.
There is paramount case of Bollywood star Sunny Deol who did not visit the constituency even once after getting elected to Lok Sabha. Deol did not even attend Lok Sabha and asked no question in parliament, leave aside being available to his voters in the border constituency. The political pundits are of the view that Sandhu if fielded in Amritsar could be dangerous for party’s political prospects in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the voting for which will take place on June 1.
“In the past BJP senior leader late Arun Jatiely and Union Minister Hardeep Puri who contested as party’s candidate from Amritsar lost the elections badly. The reason was that they did not augur well with the local population and they lost to opposition Congress which had fielded a little known but local face who won with heavy margin”, said a local level party leader in Chandigarh.
On the other hand, BJP MP from Chandigarh Kirron Kher is not physically well and the party is looking to replace her candidature with the new face. The party is virtually divided in groups in the city beautiful and there are chances that Sandhu who is an educated face with background of a senior official of Indian Foreign Service (IFS) to be dropped as candidate.
The party sources said the party has successfully banked on outsiders in Chandigarh in the past when they had won the seat with heavy margins in the past, unlike Amritsar.
