80 Independents in the fray, some rebels to play spoilers
As many as 80 candidates are contesting the MC elections as Independent from Ludhiana city. Most of the candidates chose to contest as Independent as they were not associated with any political party while some candidates decided to go solo after they were not given tickets by political parties they were associated with.
Out of 80 candidates, some rebels are going to play the role of a spoiler because they may cause dent in the voting share of the political party they were earlier associated with.
Parvinder Lapran, who was earlier associated with the Congress and also remained councillor from the party, joined the BJP in May this year. Lapran had clout in his area and he might eat into the major share of vote bank which in turn would play a spoilsport for the BJP from Ward No. 51. Since this ward is reserved for female candidate, Lapran’s wife advocate Avneet Kaur is contesting the elections as an Independent. The BJP has given ticket to Neeru Sharma. Lapran, along with his wife, has been doing extensive campaigning in the ward and doing door-to-door meetings with residents. Lapran is also considered as close confidant of Union Minister Ravneet Bittu.
Sources said BJP leaders had tried a lot to placate Lapran, but he refused and remained stick to his stand of going solo in the polls.
Davinder Jaggi, another BJP rebel, had decided to contest as an Independent from Ward No. 82. After the nomination of the BJP candidate was rejected from this ward, the saffron party decided to support Jaggi.
It is also being speculated that some of the independents or rebels can prove game changers as they can attract votes. The elections for councillors are more of face value and the party is secondary. This time, maximum faces are new for the public. So, it will be seen how the voters will act.
Vishal Batra, alias Sonu Bengali, who was in the Aam Aadmi Party and a close confidant of AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi, joined the BJP on December 9. He was expecting a BJP ticket from Ward No. 62, but the saffron party gave ticket to Sunil Modgil. Now, Sonu turned rebel and filed nominations as an Independent candidate from Ward No 62. He may dent vote share of BJP candidate from the ward.
