Punjab byelections: BJP fields Ravi Karan Kahlon from Dera Baba Nanak

The BJP has named turncoat Ravi Karan Kahlon as the party candidate from the Dera Baba Nanak Assembly seat, where the byelection is being held on November 13.

Ravi was a dyed-in-the-wool Akali before he fell out with the powers that be in the SAD in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He allegedly worked against the interests of party candidate Daljit Singh Cheema and was expelled.  The leadership, keeping in view the work he had done as the SAD Majha zone in charge in the past, was reluctant to take action but Cheema put his foot down. He even furnished proof of Ravi’s anti-party activities to chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Ravi had promised to organise a couple of rallies in Dera Baba Nanak but backed out at the last-minute, leaving Cheema fuming and fretting at the turn of events. With such a senior leader like Daljit Singh Cheema asking the high command in no uncertain terms to take action against him, the leadership was left with no option except to give him the sack.

Once shunted out of his parent party, Ravi was termed a “renegade, defector and deserter”. He, however, took pains to point out that he never left the party on his own volition but was kicked out at the insistence of Cheema.

He is the son of former Speaker and Cabinet Minister Nirmal Singh Kahlon — considered to be one of the tallest Akali leaders of Majha. When his father was the Speaker, the then Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, had rewarded the Kahlons for their loyalty to the party and appointed Ravi twice as the chairman of the Punjab State Tubewell Corporation.  He has also remained the MD of the Gurdaspur Cooperative Bank from 2008 till 2011 apart from serving two terms as the Director of the Punjab State Cooperative Bank. He also remained the vice-president of the Punjab Kabaddi Association. After the Akalis took action, Ravi's survival in politics was at stake. Sensing he could be pushed into political wilderness, Ravi immediately joined the BJP.  Notwithstanding the fact that he is now the party candidate, he finds himself in troubled waters as the party has a negligible vote share in this predominantly rural Sikh seat.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Dinesh Singh Babbu had put on a dismal show by getting barely 5,000 votes from this seat.

Ravi was not at all keen to contest. The central leadership, however, was impressed by the fact that he had bagged more than 50,000 votes in the 2022 Assembly elections. He had ended second, with veteran Congressman Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa just managing to scrap through by a wafer-thin margin of 466 votes. This election proved that Ravi has an impressive vote bank and this is what pushed the leadership to nominate him as its candidate.