CHANDIGARH (TIP): The Bharatiya Janta Party on Sept 21 (Thursday) announced Swaran Singh Salaria as its candidate from the Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency, which fell vacant after the demise of actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna in April this year.

The BJP central election committee picked Salaria for the by-election to the parliamentary constituency of Gurdaspur.

Salaria is a businessman from Chauhana village of Bhoa Assembly constituency. Meanwhile four candidates on Thursday filed their nominations for the Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency by-poll, to be held on October 11.

An official spokesperson said those who filed nominations include Aam Aadmi Party candidate Suresh Khajuria and his covering candidate Taripata Kumari, besides Rajinder Singh of Hindustan Shakti Saina and Santosh Kumari of Megh Deshm Party. The Congress on Wednesday nominated its Punjab unit president Sunil Jakhar, a loyalist of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, to contest Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-election scheduled on October 11. Jakhar (63), a threetime MLA from Abohar and a former Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader, was pitted in the intra-party battle against Amarinder’s bête noire and former PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa, whose wife was a claimant for the same ticket.