Chandigarh, Dec 31 (IANS) It is Badal versus Badal in Punjab’s Lambi assembly constituency. Tipped to be the ‘mother of all battles’, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will be pitted against his own younger brother Gurdas Singh Badal for this seat in Jan 30 polls.
The contest between the two brothers became formal Saturday after the newly floated People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) announced it was fielding Gurdas Badal for the Lambi seat.
Gurdas Badal is the father of PPP president and former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal. In all previous polls, he was in charge of his more famous elder brother’s election from the Lambi constituency.
Manpreet Badal left the Punjab government October last year following ideological differences with his uncle Parkash Singh Badal and cousin Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is the ruling Akali Dal president and Punjab’s deputy chief minister, over issues like subsidies and state finances.
Manpreet, later expelled from the Akali Dal, will himself contest from his traditional Gidderbaha constituency in Muktsar district.
The PPP also announced the candidature of Abhey Singh Sandhu, grand-nephew of martyr Bhagat Singh, who will contest from Nawanshahr seat. The PPP is in Sanjha Morcha alliance with the Communist parties and the Akali Dal (Longowal).
Former Akali Dal legislator Gaganjit Singh Barnala, who is the son of former Tamil Nadu governor and former Punjab chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala, has been fielded from the Dhuri seat.
The Sanjha Morcha has announced 41 candidates for the elections to 117 seats. While 29 candidates are from PPP, five each are those of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI-Marxist.
