Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa has said that he wants to contest state assembly elections from his home constituency of Gurdaspur, after having trained his guns on Captain Amarinder Singh and former Congress state president Sunil Jakhar for months.
Bajwa had been nominated as the Rajya Sabha member and his term will come to an end in April next year, following the results of the 2022 assembly elections.
Bajwa has not only been skeptical of the Captain-led government but many a times publicly criticised both Captain and Jakhar. Making his intent clear about wanting to contest elections, Bajwa said, “I want to come back home and have decided to contest from Gurdaspur in next assembly elections. I have already held meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Captain Amarinder Singh in this regard. I am ready to contest from any one of the existing Assembly segments from Gurdaspur."
Gurdaspur, which Bajwa treats as his home constituency has nine Assembly seats out of which, Dinanagar and Bhoa are reserved. Senior Congress leaders point out that Bajwa himself would like to contest from either Qadian or Batala. Qadian is held by his younger brother and sitting legislator Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa, and that is a seat that he would not want to vacate even for his sibling.
His re-entry in state politics after a gap is seen as his ambition to cash in on the ongoing power struggle between CM and party president Navjot Singh Sidhu .
Though Bajwa has been critical about the Captain in the last four and a half years, from the time Sidhu has been appointed as the PPCC chief, Bajwa has been reportedly cosying up to the CM. There were reports that he had been meeting the CM at his residence on the pretext of taking up the cause of the sugarcane farmers.
Observers say that though many in the state unit would not like to see his re-entry in the state politics but with consent of the party high command Bajwa might have his way out in the state politics as well.
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