In the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency in Punjab, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate came from the Aam Aadmi Party, the Aam Aadmi Party candidate came from the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiromani Akali Dal candidate is from the Congress. Only the Congress candidate is from the Congress here.
Jalandhar is not the only such constituency where the mainstream parties have fielded the turncoats. There are at least six of the thirteen parliamentary constituencies in Punjab, where each mainstream party including the Congress, the AAP, the BJP and the Akali Dal has fielded at least one turncoat.
In Jalandhar, Sushil Kumar Rinku who is the sitting MP from the AAP defected to BJP even after he had been re-nominated from there. The AAP in turn got Pawan Kumar Tinu, a former MLA defected from the Akali Dal and fielded him from Jalandhar.
The Akalis got former Punjab Congress president and former Minister Mohinder Singh Kaypee defected from the Congress to join the Akali Dal and fielded him from Jalandhar.
In Ludhiana, the BJP has fielded sitting Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, who defected to the BJP about a month ago.
In the royal city of Patiala, the BJP has again fielded Preneet Kaur, sitting MP from there, who defected and joined the BJP. Her husband and former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had joined the BJP over a year ago.
Congress in turn could not find any suitable candidate from within its ranks and got former AAP MP Dr Dharamveer Gandhi to join the party and fielded him from there. Gandhi had however, resigned from the AAP long ago and formed his own political party.
In Hoshiarpur, the ruling AAP has fielded Dr Rajkumar Chabbewal, a sitting Congress MLA who defected to the AAP to contest the parliamentary elections.
In Fatehgarh Sahib parliamentary constituency, the ruling AAP has again fielded a defector Gurpreet Singh ‘Geepee’, a former Congress MLA.
From Bathinda, the Congress has fielded Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, a former Akali Dal MLA who defected from the party to join the Congress.
In total eight “turncoats” have been fielded from 13 of the Ludhiana parliamentary constituencies.
There are still some more candidates to be announced by the Congress, the BJP and the Akali Dal. The political grapevine does not rule out the fielding of a few more turncoats who may end up making the final cut.
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