Bittu to contest from Ludhiana, Rinku from Jalandhar, Hans from Faridkot; Sunny Deol dropped

Bittu to contest from Ludhiana, Rinku from Jalandhar, Hans from Faridkot; Sunny Deol dropped

New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday named six of Punjab’s 13 Lok Sabha candidates including Preneet Kaur from Patiala, former Indian ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu from Amritsar, three-term MP Ravneet Singh Bittu from Ludhiana and ex-AAP leader Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar reserved seat.

From Faridkot reserved segment, the BJP sprung a surprise by fielding Punjabi singer Hans Raj Hans, who is the North West Delhi MP in the outgoing 17th Lok Sabha. Former Sujanpur MLA Dinesh Babbu has been fielded from Gurdaspur, where the party has dropped sitting MP Sunny Deol.

The party currently has two MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha — Som Prakash in Hoshiarpur and Sunny Deol in Gurdaspur. Preneet Kaur is the sitting MP from Patiala. She switched over to the BJP from the Congress recently.

Bittu also joined the BJP after quitting the Congress this week, as did Rinku who had won Jalandhar LS bypoll in 2023 on AAP ticket.