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Akali Dal to contest 10 seats; leaves 3 for BJP

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, FEB. 24. The Shiromani Akali Dal today announced its final list of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Of the 13 seats in the State, the party would contest 10, leaving three to its alliance partner, the Bharatiya Jaanata Party.

The Akali Dal supremo, Parkash Singh Badal, announced five candidates while addressing a rally in Ferozepur this afternoon. Prominent among the party nominees are Mr. Badal's son, Sukhbir Singh, for the Faridkot seat, sitting MP, Zora Singh Mann, for Ferozepur, and former Speaker of the Punjab Assembly, Charanjit Singh Atwal, who has been fielded from the reserved constituency of Phillaur.

The president of the youth wing of the Dal, Sharanjit Dhillon, has been fielded from Ludhiana. He is considered close to Mr. Sukhbir Singh, who organised the youth rally in Ludhiana recently. For another reserved seat, Ropar, the Dal has decided to put up Sukhdev Singh Libra, considered close to the president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), G.S. Tohra.

Last week, Mr. Badal had announced the names of the other five candidates. Some resentment was aired in the party over the nomination of some candidates, which the Akali leadership seems to have managed well so far. The party has opened its election office in Jalandhar, while its candidates have hit the dusty tracks for campaigning, much before the announcement of dates by the Election Commission. Also the party appears to have grabbed the initiative by announcing all its candidates to sort out factional problems and organise the campaign.

With today's announcement, it has become clear that Akali Dal would not align with any other party except the BJP.

It also became clear that the BJP would contest its traditional three seats of Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur. All speculation regarding the change in numbers or alignment of seats, has been laid to rest, even though the BJP chief, Venkaiah Naidu, was quoted to have said that the talks about seat-sharing were yet to take place.

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