Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal announced on Tuesday the party's first candidate for the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab. "The first ticket of the SAD for the parliamentary elections from the Khadoor Sahib seat is given to Bibi Jagir Kaur," Badal said at a public meeting in Tarn Taran district.
Kaur was acquitted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court last December in a case of forcible abortion and abduction of her daughter, Harpreet Kaur, who had died under mysterious circumstances in April 2000. She had to resign as a minister in the Akali-BJP government in 2012 when a CBI court had sentenced her and three others to five years imprisonment.
Kaur was an MLA from the Bholath assembly seat in Kapurthala district and the two-time chief of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
Khadoor Sahib has been the citadel of the Akali Dal, where rebel Akali leader Ranjit Singh Brahmpura is the sitting MP.
Brahmpura and two veteran Akali leaders -- former MP Rattan Singh Ajnala and Sewa Singh Sekhwan -- had formed a new political outfit, SAD (Taksali) after they were expelled from the party for revolting against Badal.
Kaur has been visiting the nine assembly constituencies under the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat -- Tarn Taran, Khadoor Sahib, Khemkaran, Patti, Baba Bakala, Jandiala, Kapurthala, Sultanpur Lodhi and Zira.
The Akali Dal and the BJP will contest on 10 and three seats respectively. BJP president Amit Shah had announced last month that the two parties would fight the Lok Sabha poll together and contest on the same number of seats in the state as in the 2014 general election.
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