New Delhi: The political fight in Punjab’s Gurdaspur is going to be closely watched by all as Bollywood star Sunny Deol, who has recently joined the BJP is making his debut from here.  He is facing competition from Sunil Jakhar of the Congress party.

Polling in Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency was held on May 19 in the 7th phase (last phase) of the general election 2019.

Ajay Singh Deol who is popularly known as Sunny Deol has been a crowd puller for his role in ‘patriotic’ films like Border and Gadar but the final result will show if he managed to get enough traction on the ground.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  – won by getting a margin of over 1.36 lakh votes. He had defeated Partap Singh Bajwa of the Indian National Congress (INC). Khanna had secured 482255 votes while Bajwa got 346190 votes.

However, after the death of Vinod Khanna in 2017, By-election was necessitated. Sunil Kumar Jakhar of the INC won the by-polls, defeating BJP candidate Swaran Salaria.

Sunil Jakhar, MP and three-time MLA from the Abohar assembly seat under Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency is confident to retain his position.

Of the nine assembly constituencies in Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency, seven Dera Baba Nanak, Fatehgarh Churian, Pathankot, Dinanagar, Qadian, Gurdaspur and Bhoa -- are represented by MLAs of the state’s ruling Congress. Of the other two, Batala is with the Shiromani Akali Dal and Sujanpur with the BJP.

Gurdaspur was traditionally considered a stronghold of the Congress, but BJP held on to it four times. After Khanna won from this border seat in 1998, the party also bagged it in the 1999, 2004 and 2014 elections.

The constituency witnessed two terror attacks in Dinanagar in 2015 and at the Pathankot air force base in 2016. Besides Deol and Jakhar, the others in the fray are Aam Aadmi Party's Peter Masih and Punjab Democratic Alliance's Lal Chand.