A prominent Dalit face in Punjab's Doaba region, Som Parkash defeated Congress nominee and legislator Raj Kumar Chabbewal from Hoshiarpur by just 48,530 votes
Som Parkash. Pic/YouTube
New Delhi: A former IAS officer in Punjab and two-time MLA from the Phagwara Assembly constituency, Som Parkash is a first-time MP elected from the Hoshiarpur (SC) constituency. Parkash was sworn in as a Union minister of state on Thursday. Som Prakash is the new Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
A prominent Dalit face in Punjab's Doaba region, Som Parkash defeated Congress nominee and legislator Raj Kumar Chabbewal from Hoshiarpur by just 48,530 votes. The BJP had benched its sitting MP Vijay Sampla and fielded Parkash from the constituency. Parkash, who had taken premature retirement from the IAS to join the BJP, had unsuccessfully fought from the Hoshiarpur seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. He had lost by a very thin margin.
Som Parkash had contested the 2012 Assembly polls from the Phagwara seat on a BJP ticket and won. He was re-elected from the seat in the 2017 assembly election. Parkash shared a strained relationship with Sampla, who as the Punjab BJP chief had opposed his candidature for the 2017 assembly polls. But he turned out to be among the three BJP candidates who won the election.
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