Congress declares candidates for 77 out of 117 seats in Punjab

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Congress on Thursday declared its second list of 16 candidates for the forthcoming Assembly elections, choosing winnability over other considerations to go with four new faces, including two youth. The names of these 16 candidates were finalized in New Delhi on Wednesday by the Congress Electoral Committee (CEC), which met under the leadership of party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi.

With these announcements, the Congress has declared its candidates for 77 of the total 117 Assembly constituencies in Punjab. The remaining tickets are likely to be announced over the next few days. Congress so far has played safe on the controversial candidates, who joined party recently.

“Only credible and winnable candidates have been given the tickets, as with the first list, said Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh.
Six of the party’s sitting MLAs have been retained in this list, with two of them being shifted to new constituencies. The list also includes three newcomers to the Congress - Darshan Lal Mangepur and Harwinder Singh Laddi (former People Party Punjab leader), along with Nirmal Singh Nimma, a two time MLA from BSP. Two sitting MLAs, Joginder Singh Panjgrain and Tarlochan Singh, have not found place in this list.

The seats of former BJP and Akali Dal MLAs -- Navjot Kaur Sidhu, Pargat Singh, Inderbir Bolaria -- do not find a mention, including that of Akali-turned-Congressmen such as Deepinder Dhillon and Harry Mann.

The two lists released so far of 77 candidates in total was largely acceptable to all with hardly any controversy arising. However, it is the remaining 40 seats out of 117, where Captain Amarinder Singh will have to show his political prowess as other senior leaders like Partap Singh Bajwa - considered to be close to Rahul Gandhi are making a strong pitch for their candidates. But for sure Congress would stick to " one family- one ticket" formula.

The two youth candidates nominated to contest these polls are Birenderjit Singh Pahra and Daman Thind bajwa for Gurdaspur and Sunam assembly segments respectively.

The party, in its second list, has dropped all those candidates who had lost the 2012 polls except Surjit Singh Dhiman, whom the party has once again fielded from Amargarh, where he was defeated last time by a mere 4406 votes.

The four sitting MLAs who have retained their seats in the second list are Amarinder Singh Raja Warring from Gidderbaha, Amrik Singh Dhillon from Samrala, Jagmohan Singh Kang from Kharar and Karan Kaur Brar from Muktsar. Karan and Daman are the two women in this list, taking the total number of women candidates declared by the party so far to eight.

The party has replaced the sitting MLAs from Jaitu and Banga, both Schedule Caste seats.
In Jaitu, sitting MLA Joginder Singh Panjgrain has been dropped and replaced with Mohd Sadique. Sidique was elected from Badhaur , a schedule caste constituency in 2012 Assembly polls. Sitting MLA from Banga, Tarlochan Singh, has been replaced by Satnam Singh, who had contested from Adampur (SC seat) in the last polls.

The party has moved MLA Ajaib Singh Bhatti from Bucho Mandi (SC) to Mallout (SC).