Jalandhar West By Poll: BJP & AAP Field Turncoats, AAP & INC Field Women

The Jalandhar West state assembly by poll is coming up on 10 Jul. The poll was necessitated when AAP candidate Sheetal Angural resigned the seat and joined BJP before the general election. Later, Angural changed his mind, but the AAP speaker of assembly had already accepted his resignation (SDW Vol 2 Issue 24, Story 6). Now, Angural is being fielded by the BJP. AAP is fielding Mohinder Bhagat who was earlier in BJP and has contested twice from the same seat. He was chairman of the medium industries development board of Panjab from 2007-11. He was also the BJP’s Panjab vice-president from 1998-2001 and 2017-20. INC has chosen to field a party loyalist and former Senior Deputy Mayor Surinder Kaur. She has been five-time councilor from Jallowal Abadi area of Jalandhar West assembly seat. SAD has not contested the seat in over two decades because it was in alliance with BJP. BJP used to field candidates on this seat. SAD has chosen two-time municipal councilor Surjit Kaur as its candidate for her panthic credentials. Caste of the candidate plays a big role in elections and so is the case here in this constituency. AAP candidate Sheetal Angural comes from a Ravidassia community, which migrated from Sialkot and follow Guru Ravidas. Originally, the community worked with leather and now is into sports goods manufacturing. BJP candidate Mohinder Bhagat comes from Megh community, who are now better known as Bhagat community and are followers of Bhagat Kabir. The community comes from Sialkot and practiced weaving and now is into sports goods manufacturing. Surinder Kaur comes from the local Ravidasia/Ad-dharmi community and her husband, late Ram Asra Chaudhary, ran his own tannery.