Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma will contest the upcoming Assembly polls in the state from Pathankot, the party has announced.The BJP announced the candidature of Sharma while releasing the second list for the polls late Friday night.Issuing a statement, party national general secretary Arun Singh said that BJP's Central Election Committee has decided to field Sharma from Pathankot.After being nominated, Sharma tweeted: "I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party's national president J.P Nadda, party's state election in-charge Gajendra Singh Shekhwat and the BJP family that they trusted and fielded me from Pathankot."Former state chief Manoranjan Kalia contesting from from Jalandhar Central.
On Friday evening, the BJP released the first list of 34 candidates for the state polls.In the first list, the saffron party nominated 13 people from the Sikh community, 12 farmers and eight from the Scheduled Castes.Besides expressing faith on veteran leaders of the state, the BJP has also fielded other leaders who have switched to the saffron party.The BJP has fielded Dinesh Singh Babbu from Sujanpur, Renu Kashyap from Dinanagar, Jungilal Mahajan from Mukerian, Namisha Mehta from Garhshankar, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi from Firozpur city, Gaurav Kakkar from Faridkot, Sanjeev Khanna from Dera Bassi, Kanwar Veersingh Toda from Amloh, Kabaddi player Ranjeet Singh Khojewala from Kapurthala and Arvind Khanna from Sangrur.Punjab is slated to go to the polls on February 20.For the first time, the BJP is contesting elections in the role of 'elder brother' in alliance with Captain Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa's Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt).