Salaria was a front-runner for the ticket, along with late actor Vinod Khanna's wife Kavita Khanna. Kavita had been camping in Gurdaspur and sought to contest the by-poll to complete the developmental projects initiated by her husband.
Putting speculations to rest, the BJP on Thursday announced Mumbai-based industrialist Swaran Singh Salaria to fight the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after the death of party's four-time MP Vinod Khanna in April this year.
Salaria was a front-runner for the ticket, along with late actor Vinod Khanna's wife Kavita Khanna. Kavita had been camping in Gurdaspur and sought to contest the by-poll to complete the developmental projects initiated by her husband.
A day before the final nomination, the BJP central election committee announced Salaria as the party candidate, who was earlier sidelined in 2014 when the party selected Khanna to contest the election despite the latter's electoral loss in 2009. Salaria had even threatened to contest as an independent candidate. However, this time, Salaria, backed by Yoga Guru Ramdev, was able to clinch the ticket, despite controversies surrounding his Chintpurni Medical College, Pathankot which was barred from admissions following MCI objections.
A Congress bastion until 1998, the seat was wrested by Khanna when he first contested the elections in 1998 and went on to represent it untill his death in April this year, except in 2009, when he lost the elections to Congress's Partap Singh Bajwa.
The constituency will now witness a triangular contest. Congress has chosen its Punjab chief Sunil Jakhar, while Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has given the ticket to ex-serviceman Major General (retd) Suresh Khajuria.
While candidates of both BJP and AAP are natives of Pathankot, Congress' Sunil Jakhar is a former three-time MLA from Abohar, which he lost in the 2017 Assembly elections. Out of the nine Assembly segments in Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency, seven were won by Congress MLAs in 2017 Assembly elections.
The by-poll is scheduled to be held on October 11 and the results will be declared on October 15.
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