The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 has entered its third phase. Punjab will witness the voting for 13 Lok Sabha seats of Punjab and the sole seat of Chandigarh will be held on 1st June 2024. Out of all the 13 Lok Sabha seats, this time Faridkot is being considered a high-profile one. Faridkot will witness a clash of some famous and strong personalities during assembly elections. It is expected that there will be a tough fight between Congress and Aam Aadmi Party.
Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann has high hopes for this seat as his very close friend Karamjit Anmol will be contesting for election from Faridkot. Karamjit Anmol Singh is a famous Punjabi actor, singer and comedian. Despite having other suitable candidates who were close to CM Mann, he placed his bets on Karamjit Anmol. Winning the Faridkot seat is quite significant for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Moving on to Congress, previously Muhammad Sadiq became the MP from this seat. For the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections, Congress has considered Amarjit Kaur Sahoke to fight for this seat. The choice of Amarjit Kaur Sahoke for the Faridkot seat was opposed by its party members.
Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has made the fight more interesting by announcing famous singer Hans Raj Hans as its candidate. This is after 21 years that BJP will be fighting assembly election without any alliance. For the unversed, it was in 1997 that BJP formed an alliance with SAD and till 2019 they contested election together. Post 2019, this is the first time that BJP and SAD will contest solo in the assembly election. Hans Raj Hans has been doing various roadshows and rallies to win the support of locals. However, he has also faced opposition from their side.
Talking about Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the party has chosen Rajwinder Singh to contest the upcoming assembly elections. BSP will not be announcing any nominations from this seat.
Based on nominations, the major fight for Faridkot seat would be between Congress and AAP as both parties have chosen the strongest candidates. As this is the first time that the BJP is fighting without alliance, it might get the 4th position. However, tables can be turned anytime.
Giving an insight into the issue of Faridkot, it is considered a backward area as compared to other cities of Punjab. Locals are not very happy with the current MP as he has not put much effort for the development of this city. It is considered as the ‘Heritage City’ of Punjab but still is not cosidrerd significant for development.
Parties’ Strategies for the Lok Sabha 2024 Election
This is for the very first time, that such a close aid of the Punjab CM would be contesting election from Faridkot. Due to this, the fight for a seat would be intense. As Karamjit Anmol is a good friend of Bhagwant Mann, there are chances that CM might stage a road show. Adding to this, Hans Raj Hans might also stage some shows or carry out rallies before the elections. Congress might also be planning to carry out a rally of Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi. SAD might call Sukhbir Singh Badal for a rally.
Faridkot has in total 1688 polling stations. The constituency consists of 834493 males, 744363 females and 81 transgenders making a total of 746286 voters. Getting into the previous victors from Faridkot, the city has witnessed a candidate win twice. In 2009 Paramjit Kaur Gulshan from SAD, in 2014 Prof. Sadhu Singh from AAP and in 2019 Muhammad Sadiq from Congress were the winners of Faridkot seat.