By Amrit Pal Singh Sidhu
Bathinda, 26 March 2024: The Bathinda Lok Sabha seat is always one of the hottest seats of Punjab. During the regime of late Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Bathinda was tagged as a political capital of Punjab.
AAP candidate launches full-fledged campaign on March 26
AAP has taken lead in announcing the candidates in Punjab and Gurmeet Singh Khudian, who is Agriculture Minister in Bhagwant Singh Mann government, has been given the party ticket. He is a soft spoken and considered as a strong candidate with a clean image. He is holding meetings with party workers and started touring villages and cities. His son Ameet Khudian is also taking part in the campaign and holding meetings with youth. His full fledged campaign will be launched from 26 March from Talwandi Sabo.
Harsimrat Badal visiting constituency, meeting people
Bathinda Lok Sabha is represented by Harsimrat Kaur Badal since 2009. She fought three elections and won all the elections. But her lead decreased in 2014 and 2019 elections. She won 2009 election with a big margin of 120960 votes later the margin was drop off to 19330 in 2014 and 21399 in 2019. Amarinder Singh Raja warring was congress candidate in 2019 elections.
Though her candidature has not been announced so far, but she is running a campaign since the last few weeks and visiting towns and villages
Amrita Warring holding corner meetings, meeting people
On the other side, Amrita Warring wife of PPCC President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring is also visiting the constituency daily and holding small meetings in Bathinda city and villages of the Lok Sabha constituency. Raja Warring is also visiting the constituency regularly, recently Fateh Badal son of Maheshinder Singh Badal was also seen with him.
Though, congress has not announced any candidate in Punjab, but Amrita Warring name is among the top contenders for Bathinda Lok Sabha seat.
BJP unit in Bathinda is silent on candidate issue, though they held a meeting of their booth committee members recently. Lakha Sidhana is likely to fight as an independent with support from SAD (Mann) and BSP as per political observers.