SAD fields ex-SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur from Khadoor Sahib

Former SGPC chief and ex-MLA Bibi Jagir Kaur was Tuesday named the SAD's candidate for the Khadoor Sahib seat, the first nominee announced by the party for the Lok Sabha polls. "The first ticket of the SAD for the parliamentary elections from the Khadoor Sahib seat is given to Bibi Jagir Kaur," Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal said, addressing the gathering in Tarn Taran.

He said the decision to field Jagir Kaur was taken by the party as well as the 'Sikh Sangat' (Sikh community). 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. Badal said Kaur, who had risen up after fighting all odds, would be the voice of the people as well as the Sikh panth in Parliament.

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.

Meanwhile, Badal hit out at the SAD (Taksali), the breakaway faction of Akali Dal, alleging that Brahmpura as MP did not raise any issue in parliament for five years. "You elected Brahmpura sahib but he did not raise a single issue of your area or the state in parliament for five years," he told the gathering.

Badal also launched a frontal attack on Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, accusing him of having failed on honouring poll promises.