The Congress has decided to pit Captain Amarinder Singh in a titanic battle against incumbent Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at Badal’s home turf lambi. The party has also decided to field Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu from Amritsar (East) constituency in the poll bound Punjab.
Former Indian hockey team captain Pargat Singh, who too joined the grand old party along with Sidhu’s wife Navjot, will be the candidate from Jalandhar Cantt.
With the Congress policy of one-family one-ticket, Sidhu won over his wife Navjot who will now campaign for both her husband and the party in Punjab.
Amarinder, who is also the Punjab Congress chief, chose to take on Parkash Singh Badal after Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s challenge to him to contest from lambi.
Amarinder is also the Congress candidate from Patiala (urban).
Releasing the third list for Punjab, Congress changed the nominees for four other seats. These include cancelling the nomination of Sidhu’s wife from Amritsar East. Nominees for the pending seats of Amritsar South, Mansa and ludhiana East will be announced on Tuesday. Total number of seats announced by the party is 110 of the 117 Punjab Assembly seats.
ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu has been assigned the task of taking on Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal from his constituency of Jalalabad. Sidhu’s associate and former hockey player Pargat Singh has been allotted the ticket from Jalandhar Cantt, with Jalandhar DCC Rural president Jagbir Singh Brar chosen to contest the Nakodar seat. For Sanaur, Harinder Pal Singh (Harry) Mann, former Punjab Information Commissioner, has also been given the ticket.
The seats for which the party has changed its nominees are Jagraon (ex-MlA Malkiat Singh Dakha in place of Geja Ram), Jalandhar North (Bawa Henry, son of former Punjab minister Avtar Henry instead of Rajkumar Gupta) and Bholath (Ranjit Singh Rana instead of Guwinder Singh Atwal). The party has also changed the candidate from Phillaur-SC, giving ticket now to Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary in place of his mother Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary.
Early in the day, Sidhu who addressed the media after being inducted in the party fold said he was a “born Congressman” who was coming back to his roots and would be ready to work under anybody appointed by the high command and contest from where the party wants him to.
On the speculations that he may be the party’s Chief Ministerial face, Sidhu refused to comment. “Gehun khet mein aur beta pet mein aur aap byah ki baat kar rahe ho,(it is premature to talk about the issue),” the former BJP man said when asked whether he would like to be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the party.
Congress has not declared a chief ministerial candidate and was contesting the polls under the leadership of Amarinder Singh. “In politics there are no ifs and buts. If my aunt has moustache I would have called her uncle,” the cricketer turned entertainer said in remarks at the press conference which were replete with one-liners and wit.
Without taking name of any BJP leader, he suggested that the machinations of “Manthra” (a maid in the epic Ramayana who convinces Queen Kaikeyi that the throne of Ayodhya was for her son Bharat) made him leave Amritsar which he represented in lok Sabha for four terms. However, he did not reveal who played the role of “Manthra” in the BJP.
Insisting that he was a “born Congressman”, Sidhu said his father Bhagwant Singh Sidhu was a freedom fighter and was in the Congress for 40 long years and, therefore, “I have come back to my roots.”
To a question, he said there were no differences with PCC Chief Amarinder Singh and added that when two nations can sort out their problems by sitting across the table why cannot two individuals resolve their differences.”If lalu and Nitish can come together why can’t I and Amarinder join hands,” he asked.
While he sidestepped a question on his views about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sidhu said that he has never spoken against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.