Former AAP MP Dharamvira Gandhi Is Congress Candidate To Counter Preneet Kaur From Patiala

The former AAP MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi is the Congress candidate from Punjab’s Patiala constituency. To take on the sitting MP Preneet Kaur who won the 2019 general election on the Congress ticket and joined the BJP later, the Congress nominated Dharamvira Gandhi after he joined the grand old party on April 1.

The 72-year-old doctor has worked as a senior lecturer at the Government Medical College, Patiala’s Department of Cardiology. He joined politics inspired by the anti-corruption movement of the AAP. Joining the party, Dharamvira Gandhi contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and subsequently emerged victorious by defeating the Congress’s then-sitting MP Preneet Kaur from Patiala. Preneet Kaur was a party veteran and a four-time MP from the seat. 

Notably, the BJP which had not fielded candidates in the recent past has nominated the sitting MP Preneet Kaur from Patiala. Preneet Kaur had joined the saffron party after Congress’s suspension following the MP’s anti-party activities. The party had found the MP helping the BJP.  

However, as the former Congress MP and the wife of the former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh vying for her fifth term, the stage has been set for a fierce battle between the Congress’s Dharam Vira Gandhi and the BJP’s Preneet Kaur.

A doctor by profession, The Dharamvira Gandhi MP quit the party in 2016 and formed his own party, Nawan Punjab Party. As he joined the Congress, he declared his party’s merging too with the grand old party. 

After joining the Congress, the former AAP leader had called the 2024 Lok Sabha election “crucial for democracy in India.” “.To save the country from heading towards absolute dictatorship, Congress is the only option left.” Dharamvira Gandhi had also joined the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra.

As per his previous affidavit, Dharamvira Gandhi has over 4 crore assets and has no criminal cases charged against him. During his stint as a parliamentarian from Patiala, he recorded 55 percent attendance, participating in 67 debates. He had posed 15 questions and introduced eight private bills.