The Punjab Congress, it seems, is banking on its trusted soldiers. lagging behind a little from its rival, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in announcement of candidates, the party has finalised the names for the four parliamentary constituencies — Patiala, Anandpur Sahib, Sangrur, and Khadoor Sahib, out of the 13 in Punjab.
Predictably, the party high command has cleared the name of Union Minister Perneet Kaur for Patiala, Ravneet Singh Bittu for Anandpur Sahib, and Vijay Inder Singla for Sangrur
constituency.
For Khadoor Sahib, party’s State general secretary Harminder Singh
Gill, who gave tough fight to three-time Patti MlA Adeish Partap Singh Kairon in 2012 Assembly polls, has
been approved.
The names, as per available information, has been cleared by the party high command in its election committee on Friday in New Delhi, but the formal announcement of the same is yet to be made.
Already, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has took a lead in announcing its candidates for all the 10 seats it would contest in alliance
with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has three seats in its share.
Making the contest attention-grabbing in Patiala, the SAD has fielded Deepinder Singh Dhillon, Preneet’s once close aide. If that is not enough to challenge the sitting MP and Maharani of Patiala, Aam Aadmi Party has pitted known social activist Dharamvir Gandhi against her making it a triangular contest.
Even as the former Chief Minister and Preneet’s husband Capt Amarinder Singh categorically stated that they would once again conquer the Patiala seat, presence of Dhillon and AAP may give tough time to the three-time MP, besides the anti-Congress wave blowing across the nation.
For sitting Anandpur Sahib MP Bittu, SAD’s
candidate Prem Singh Chandumajra, former MP,
is being viewed as an
easy opponent considering Chandumajra’s series of defeats in the three consecutive polls.
After loosing assembly polls in 2007 from lehragaga against Rajinder Kaur
Bhattal, he was made to bite the dust in 2009 parliamentary elections from Patiala against Preneet Kaur.
This was followed by
his defeat in 2012 Assembly elections from Fatehgarh Sahib against Kuljit Singh Nagra.
As a reward for his loyalties, the party has decided to give him one more chance but from a new arena, visibly making things easy for the young Congress leader — grandson of late Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
Bittu, handpicked by Rahul Gandhi, became the Punjab Youth Congress
(PYC) president in December 2008, and was given
party ticket, and eventually entered the Parliament as first time MP.
Sangrur parliamentary seat is once again going to witness the electoral battle between sitting MP Singla and SAD candidate Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
Alike Bittu, Singla
is also Rahul Gandhi’s close aide and was specially selected by him for the party ticket in 2009 polls. Son of former Congress MP Sant Ram Singla, 42-year-old MP has been running ahead all the aspirants for the party ticket from Sangrur.
It is believed that he has been rewarded for enabling the Congress to recapture the Sangrur seat after almost two decades, by defeating an Akali stalwart Dhindsa by around 41,000 votes in 2009 lok Sabha polls.
Even as Dhindsa’s term in Rajya Sabha would expire in 2016, he has been selected another time considering
not many options available with the Akali Dal to take
on Singla.
After testing his political prowess in the 2012 assembly polls, Harminder Singh Gill would contest lok Sabha elections for the first time, against Akali stalwart and former minister Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, who is also new to parliamentary polls.
Gill has been emerged as the frontrunner, considering the small margin,
59 votes, between him and Kairon in 2012 assembly polls. Moreover, Gill enjoys
the confidence of both Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa and the latter’s predecessor Capt Amarinder Singh.
It is expected that the party would announce the names in a day or so.