Jalalabad: It’s Sukhbir vs Bhagwant vs Bittu
Tuesday, 17/01/2017
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=171532&boxid=58498&uid=&dat=2017-01-17
Chandigarh : After a tedious churning of candidates, the Congress finally released its fourth list of 10 candidates, fielding Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu against SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal from Jalalabad, here on Monday. Also, Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh was officially announced to contest against Parkash Singh Badal at Lambi.
Cricketer-turned- politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who formally joined the party on Monday, has been pitched from Amritsar East, while Hockey Olympian Pargat Singh will contest from Jalandhar Cantonment.
The party has also replaced four candidates thus giving much disappointment and surprises.
At Jalandhar North, now Avtar Singh Sanghera, a son of former Congress minister Avtar Henry, is the choice of party. The party earlier had nominated Tajinder Singh Bittu, a former Jalandhar Improvement Trust Chairman, from the seat. He was later replaced with Rajkumar Gupta.
The parry is still undecided on Amritsar South, Mansa and Ludhiana East seats.
The party has changed its nominees are Jagraon (ex-MLA Malkiat Singh Dakha in place of Geja Ram), and Bholath (Ranjit Singh Rana instead of Guwinder Singh Atwal).
Transporter-turned politician and senior Congress leader Avtar Henry who could not contest this time after his Indian citizenship was cancelled, had launched a strong revolt against party and was demanding ticket for his son.
Similarly, Vikramjit Chaudhary, son of Jalandhar MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh, was finally nominated as a party candidate from Phillaur, instead of his mother Karamjit Kaur.
Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh is all set to file his nomination papers against SAD heavyweight and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal from Lambi on Wednesday with the Congress high command clearing his name for the seat on Monday evening, while announcing tickets from six more seats and changing the nominees from four others.
While the party’s star campaigner, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu will fight from Amritsar East in place of his wife, who had earlier been shortlisted for ticket from the constituency, Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu has been assigned the task of taking on Sukhbir Singh Badal from the latter’s home constituency of Jalalabad.
