SAD turncoat party choice for Dera Baba Nanak seat

The BJP has named turncoat Ravi Karan Kahlon as the party candidate for the Dera Baba Nanak Assembly seat where a bypoll is scheduled for November 13.

Ravi was a dyed-in-the-wool Akali before he fell out with the powers that be in the SAD during the Lok Sabha elections this year. He allegedly worked against the interests of party candidate Daljit Singh Cheema and was expelled. Once shunted out of his parent party, Ravi was termed a “renegade, defector and deserter”. He, however, pointed out that he never left the party on his own volition, but was kicked out at Cheema’ insistence.

He is the son of ex-Speaker and Cabinet minister Nirmal Singh Kahlon, considered to be one of the tallest Akali leaders of Majha.

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 polled barely 5,000 votes.

Ravi was not at all keen on contesting the bypoll. The central leadership, however, was impressed by the fact that he had bagged over 50,000 votes in the 2022 Assembly elections. He had lost to veteran Congressman Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa by a wafer-thin margin of 466 votes.