Ahead of the February 20 Assembly polls, Rahul Gandhi is likely to announce the name of the party's chief ministerial face in his virtual meeting in Ludhiana on Sunday.
There are only two names in the fray now-- Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
During his last visit to Punjab on January 27, Gandhi while addressing a virtual rally in Jalandhar had announced that the Congress will soon declare its chief ministerial face for the February 20 elections and a decision on it will be taken after consulting party workers.
Besides taking feedback from the leaders and workers of the party, the Congress sought the opinion of the public on who should be its CM candidate through an automated call system. In the tele-survey, the voters were given three options--Channi, Sidhu or go without CM face--through a pre-recorded message.
The Congress was under pressure for announcing its CM candidate particularly when the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), which is also the main contender for power in the multi-cornered electoral contest, named Bhagwat Mann as its chief ministerial face.
Earlier, the Congress had been maintaining that it would go to the polls under collective leadership.
For the last several weeks, both Channi and Sidhu have, directly or indirectly, made a case to be declared as the party's nominee for the top post. Though the CM face is expected to be known on Sunday, certain party leaders threw their weight behind Channi who is the first Dalit Chief Minister of Punjab.
There is a feeling in the Congress that Channi could bring electoral gains to the party especially in areas where there is a sizable number of scheduled caste population and the ruling party would like to consolidate the SC vote bank. The party fielded Channi from a second seat from Bhadaur in Barnala district, a move which was aimed to counter the influence of the AAP in the Malwa region. Channi is also contesting from his home turf Chamkaur Sahib seat in Rupnagar. Punjab has 31.94 per cent SC population, the highest proportion among all states in the country. It has a sizeable population of the SC community in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts in the state's Doaba region.