Amidst strong indications that Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar is the party choice for the Gurdaspur Parliamentary bye-election, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and the State party affairs secretary in-charge Asha Kumari on Monday met the party’s national president Sonia Gandhi.
In separate meetings, the two leaders discussed the nominees for the upcoming bypoll, with Jakhar being the hot favourite for the seat.
Sources maintained that the party has almost finalised former Abohar MlA Jakhar’s name and just the formal announcement is awaited, which would be made any time soon.
Sixty-three-year-old senior Congress leader is an acceptable candidate by the majority of Congress’ seven legislators falling under the Gurdaspur constituency, besides the party workers considering his clean and honest image.
To top it all! He enjoys the support of Capt Amarinder, something that also helped him in his elevation to party’s top post in Punjab.
Other than Jakhar, the name of former Gurdaspur MP and Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa and his wife and Qadian’s former MlA Charanjit Kaur Bajwa was discussed.
Asha Kumari met Gandhi after Capt Amarinder’s meeting to finalise the nomination. Sources said that the party would announce the name anytime.
It is believed that Jakhar would be the best bet for the faction-ridden Congress party in Gurdaspur where Bajwa is facing rivalry from another Bajwa- State Cabinet Minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa - who was also seeking ticket for his son.
“Jakhar’s character and standing in the party coupled with a Hindu face would help to bring together all factions, leaders, in fact he can pull in the voter across all sections towards the Congress,” a senior Congress leader told The Pioneer.
Notably, Gurdaspur has 46.74 per cent Hindu population and 43.64 per cent Sikhs. Out of total 16 lok Sabha elections, Gurdaspur electorate elected Sikh MPs seven times while Hindu candidates nine times.
In fact, the Congress leaders were also divided over fielding a Hindu or Sikh candidate, besides fighting over local or outsider.
looking at the background of the Gurdaspur constituency, it used to be Congress stronghold with the party bagging the seat 11 times out of total 16 parliamentary polls.
Actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna, the sitting BJP MP who passed away in April this year, was the only non-Congress party leader to represent the seat for four times in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014.