The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday fielded former Indian ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu from Punjab’s Amritsar for the Lok Sabha elections.
Sandhu, who is a 1988 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, retired as India’s Ambassador to the United States on February 1.
The party released names of 11 more candidates for the general elections.
Sushil Kumar Rinku, who was the lone Aam Aadmi Party Lok Sabha MP, will contest from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency on a BJP ticket. Rinku joined the Hindutva party on Wednesday.
Ravneet Singh Bittu, a three-time Congress MP from Ludhiana, who joined the BJP on Tuesday has been fielded from his traditional constituency.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur who also joined the BJP will be contesting the elections from Patiala. Kaur represented the constituency for the Congress earlier.
BJP’s North West Delhi MP Hans Raj Hans, was given a ticket from Punjab’s Faridkot seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Castes.
The BJP will be contesting the elections in Punjab alone as talks with its traditional ally Shiromani Akali Dal failed.
Voters in all 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of Punjab will head for polling on June 1. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
In Odisha, the BJP has fielded former Biju Janata Dal leader Bhartruhari Mahtab from Cuttack. The veteran politician is a six-time MP from Cuttack.
In West Bengal, Debasish Dhar, a 2010 batch Indian Police Service officer who resigned on March 20, will contest from Birbhum on a BJP ticket.
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