BJP poll warriors in fray: 4-time winner Manpreet picked for Gidderbaha

Former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who became active in Gidderbaha almost two months ago, is the saffron party’s pick for the Gidderbaha seat. Notably, the BJP had no other leader of Manpreet’s stature in this constituency.

He is pitted against Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, who had been his close aide and now the AAP candidate for the seat. Both Manpreet and Dimpy were earlier together in the SAD. Dimpy used to garner support for Manpreet when he contested elections.

Manpreet (62), who did LLB from London, terms Gidderbaha his ‘karam bhoomi’ as he has represented the area in the Assembly four times in a row. He had won on SAD ticket in 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2007. He, however, lost in 2012 when he contested as a People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) candidate with first-timer Amrinder Singh Raja Warring emerging the winner. Later, he shifted base to Bathinda and won on Congress ticket in 2017, but lost the 2022 polls. In 2014, he had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Bathinda against SAD’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Manpreet had joined the BJP in January last year. After getting the party ticket, he said, “I contested the 1995 bypoll too against the ruling party. However, I feel the absence of former CM Parkash Singh Badal this time. We did exemplary work in the constituency. Now, I ask the Gidderbaha voters to elect me and make the BJP show its Punjab model through its works in the next two years.”