With Union Minister and Congress’ national spokesperson Manish Tewari hospitalised for a heart ailment a day before, the suspense over his re-nomination from ludhiana continues as the party is expected to take a call after Holi festival.
It has been learnt that the Information and Broadcasting Minister, who represents ludhiana constituency in Punjab, is unlikely to contest the lok Sabha polls. 48-year-old Tewari, who has not been keeping well for the past several days and had earlier gone to AIIMS for treatment, may not be in a position to fight elections and is learnt to have apprised the party leadership of his health condition. He was admitted to Max Hospital in south Delhi yesterday.
His hospitalisation could not have come at a more inopportune time for Congress as Tewari is a vocal leader and a good orator besides being a senior party spokesman. Congress has yet not announced the party candidate for ludhiana and he was expected to be re-nominated from the seat. Earlier, there was a speculation that Tewari wanted to contest from Chandigarh seat from where former Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was renominated.
Tewari had recently rebuked the reports that he was keen on changing his constituency, maintaining that he was prepared to fight from ludhiana if his party decided to field him. The party’s Central Election Committee is likely to take a decision on Punjab and Delhi on March 18.