CM: Anyone opposing nominee to face action

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Partap Singh Bajwa. File photo

Pathankot, March 8: Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa may face the heat in the coming daysif Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh statement that “anybody who opposes the official candidate may face action” is any indication.

Bajwa has all along been claiming that sitting MP Sunil Jakhar should leave Gurdaspur, from where he was elected a parliamentarian for the first time in the 2017 byelection, and he should be made to contest from his home seat of Ferozepur.

Sources say the name of Jakhar has already been finalised as the party nominee from Gurdaspur and a formal announcement will be made soon after the elections are announced.

In the byelection, Bajwa had distanced himself from Jakhar’s campaign, a development which did not go down well with the CM. Today in Pathankot, the CM, when asked by mediapersons that former MLA Raman Bhalla was opposing the candidature of Jakhar, retorted, “The man opposing the official candidate will be shown the door howsoever senior he may be in the party hierarchy.” Jakhar was accompanying the CM when the latter made these comments.

The PPCC has received just two applications from the Gurdaspur seat. Apart from Jakhar, Amardeep Cheema, Chairman of the Punjab Health Systems Corporation, is also in the fray.

However, Cheema said, “I will definitely support whosoever the party decides on,” he said.