BJP Announces Candidates For Parliamentary And Assembly Bypolls In Punjab And Odisha

The candidates for the upcoming Parliamentary and Assembly bypolls for the Punjab and the Odisha were revealed by the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday. On May 10, by-elections are scheduled to be held in the Lok Sabha district of Jalandhar in Punjab and the Assembly district of Jharsuguda in Odisha. The results will be announced on May 13, the same day as the Assembly elections in Karnataka. Sardar Indar Iqbal Singh Atwal and Tankadhar Tripathy, respectively, have been nominated by the BJP for the Jalandhar and Jharsuguda byelections. The party's Central Election Committee announced both names on Wednesday night.

Since Congressman Santokh Chaudhary passed away in January after collapsing while walking with Rahul Gandhi on the Bharat Jodo Yatra on January 14, the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat has been vacant. A heart arrest caused his death.

In the wake of Chaudhary's passing, byelections had to be held in the seat. Tankadhar will face Dipali Das of the BJD and Tarun Pandey of the Congress in the race for the Jalandhar by-elections, which has been declared for Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, Santokh Chaudhary's wife.

The party announced in a statement that Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary has been approved by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to run in the next by-election to the Lok Parliament from the Punjabi 4-Jalandhar-SC parliamentary district.