BJP announces 3 more candidates for Punjab; Rana Sodhi from Ferozepur

BJP announces 3 more candidates for Punjab; Rana Sodhi from Ferozepur

Chandigarh: The BJP on Wednesday released the 19th list of three candidates for the June 1 Punjab Lok Sabha election fielding Arvind Khanna from Sangrur, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi from Ferozepur and Subhash Sharma from Anandpur Sahib.

Khanna, who has been campaigning in Sangrur for days, was a Congress member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Sangrur from 2002 to 2007 and from Dhuri from 2012 to 2014.

He resigned as MLA of Dhuri in May 2014 amid discontent in the Punjab Congress at the time.

Khanna is close to former Punjab CM and current BJP leader Capt Amarinder Singh. He later resigned from the Congress in 2015. Khanna switched over to the BJP in January 2022.

Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, special invitee to the BJP national executive, is an erstwhile Congress leader and Punjab’s ex-cabinet minister.

Sodhi was elected MLA from Ferozepur’s Guru Har Sahai in 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017 and was previously also chief whip of the Congress Legislature Party in Punjab.

Sodhi was dropped from the Cabinet in September 2021 after Charanjit Singh Channi took over as Punjab CM following the stepping down of Capt Amarinder Singh.

Sodhi joined the BJP in December 2021.

Subhash Sharma is the party’s Punjab unit vice president and overtook former MP Avinash Rai Khanna and BJP parliamentary board member Iqbal Lalpura and his son in the candidacy race.