‘Will declare candidates 6 months before polls, MLAs to elect CM’
Sunday, 17/04/2016
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CHANDIGARH: Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi on Saturday declared the party will announce its candidates six months ahead of the upcoming Punjab assembly polls and due representation will be given to all sections, including women, youth and different castes and communities.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is not saying what Captain Amarinder Singh (behind him) is dying to hear. Everyone, including party’s Punjab affairs in-charge Shakeel Ahmad (right) and senior leader Ambika Soni, has been left guessing.
Setting the agenda for the polls in a meeting with party leaders here, Rahul highlighted drug menace, farm crisis and flight of industry among issues that the Congress will highlight during the elections.
“Be it small-scale industry or agriculture, Punjab always showed the way. It’s very sad where it has reached and the Congress will win the election and set the agenda for the state,” he said.
However, both during his interaction with Congress officebearers and reporters, Rahul steered clear of announcing Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh as the chief ministerial candidate. District Congress committee (DCC) presidents of Bathinda and Tarn Taran, Mohan Lal Aggarwal and Sukhpal Bhullar, had suggested that Amarinder be named the CM candidate.
“The Congress has a precedent of naming the chief ministerial candidate after the elections in a meeting of MLAs. Amarinder, as party Congress chief, is the face of the party in elections,” he told reporters. AMARINDER FEELS UNWELL
While many complained against holding of the meeting outdoors under white canopy in the soaring heat at a marriage palace in Zarikpur, Amarinder took ill and his aides rushed to get him diet coke and sweets fearing his blood sugar level had gone down. It was found to be normal when checked at the venue.
Though he continued to be by Rahul’s side after taking some rest, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president was clearly looking unwell.
