Chandigarh, Oct 24 (PTI) The BJP on Thursday named former Punjab minister Sohan Singh Thandal as its candidate from the Chabbewal seat for the November 13 bypolls to four assembly segments in the state.
His name was announced hours after he joined the BJP after quitting the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Thandal was welcomed in the BJP by the party’s Punjab in-charge and former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and ex-Union minister Som Parkash in Hoshiarpur.
Rupani said the BJP will gain strength with Thandal’s joining.
Thandal had unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Lok Sabha poll from the Hoshiarpur parliamentary constituency on a SAD ticket.
Once a core committee member of the SAD, Thandal won the 2012 assembly polls from the Chabbewal seat. However, his bid to get reelected remained unsuccessful in 2017 and 2022.
Thandal was the minister for jails, tourism and cultural affairs in the Akali government in Punjab.
He had been an MLA from the erstwhile Mahilpur assembly constituency in 1997, 2002 and 2007.
The bypolls to the four assembly seats — Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala — were necessitated after their MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha.
The polling will be held on November 13 and the results will be announced on November 23.
The last date for filing nominations is October 25 and the scrutiny of nomination papers will be conducted on October 28, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is October 30. PTI CHS VSD IJT IJT
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