Punjab: Jalandhar West Bypoll To See Contest Of Turncoats As AAP Names Mohinder Bhagat, BJP Fields Sheetal Angural

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have named Mohinder Bhagat and Sheetal Angural, respectively, as their candidates for the Jalandhar West byelection.

The AAP and the BJP announced their nominees for the bypoll to the Jalandhar West assembly seat in Punjab on Monday, naming the candidates who have switched sides in the recent past. The BJP fielded Sheetal Angural for the byelections, where the AAP named Mohinder Bhagat as its candidate.

The bypoll for the Jalandhar West assembly seat is scheduled to be held on July 10 and counting of votes to take place on July 13. The byelection was required after the resignation of Angural as an Aam Aadmi Party legislator.

According to PTI, Bhagat, the son of former minister Bhagat Chunni Lal from the previous SAD-BJP government, left the BJP last year to join the AAP. He had unsuccessfully contested from the Jalandhar West seat on a BJP ticket in the Punjab Assembly elections 2022.

The BJP has chosen Angural, who had resigned as an AAP legislator from the Jalandhar West seat.

Angural won the Jalandhar West assembly seat by defeating Sushil Rinku in the Punjab assembly polls 2022, who was previously the Congress candidate.

The nomination process for the Jalandhar West election began on July 14. Nominations can be filed until June 21, with scrutiny set for June 24 and the final date for withdrawal on June 26.

Sheetal Angural And Sushil Kumar Rinku Switched To BJP

Angural resigned on March 28, a day after he and Rinku joined the BJP. The Punjab Assembly Speaker accepted his resignation on May 30.  They joined the saffron party in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and its national general secretary Vinod Tawde.

After joining the BJP, Sushil Kumar Rinku has stated that it is true that the promises he made to the electorate were not fulfilled because the AAP did not support him.

Last year, Rinku quit the Congress to join the AAP to contest the bypoll to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat. He was a vocal critic of the BJP in the Lower House of Parliament. He was even suspended from the Lok Sabha for his unruly protests.