Cong fields Sunil Jakhar for Gurdaspur LS by-election
Thursday, 21/09/2017
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=181139&boxid=65568&uid=&dat=2017-09-21
New Delhi/Chandigarh : The Congress on Wednesday nominated its Punjab unit president Sunil Jakhar as the party candidate for Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-election to be held on October 11. The last date for filing of nominations is September 22 after the Election Commission issued the notification on September 15. “Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the name of Sunil Jakhar as party candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha by-election from Gurdaspur Parliamentary constituency in Punjab,” AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said in a statement. The by-election has been necessitated due to the death of BJP MP Vinod Khanna.
Jakhar is the Punjab Congress chief and a close confidant of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. A number of MLAs from Gurdaspur area had backed his candidature and so had Amarinder Singh. He had lost the last assembly election held earlier this year. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had met Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Jakhar and Pratap Singh Bajwa, Rajya Sabha MP, earlier. Ensuring victory for the party is important as this is the first election after Amarinder Singh-led Congress government came to power earlier this year.
Key DETAILS
Jakhar took over as PPCC chief in May.
Being a Hindu, Jakhar is considered a potential winner in Congress circles.
Of 16 Lok Sabha elections, Gurdaspur has returned Hindu candidates to the Lower House nine times and Sikhs seven times.
Gurdaspur has traditionally been a Congress seat except when the BJP used star power and fielded Vinod Khanna from here.
Barring Khanna, the only other non-Congress candidate to hold Gurdaspur was YD Sharma in 1977, post the Emergency.
