Sitting Ludhiana MLAs able to secure their seats

Friday, 02/12/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=169129&boxid=59483&uid=&dat=2016-12-02

Ludhiana : Finally, the first list of Congress candidates will be out on December 3 or 4. In the first list names of all sitting MLAs and non controversial leaders will appear. Three sitting MLAs of Congress party in Ludhiana have managed to secure their seats and their names are included in first list.

From Ludhiana East, former Union minister and former Member of parliament Manish Tewari is likely to contest elections. The Congress party wanted to introduce prominent Hindu face in Punjab and choose its national spokesperson to contest elections. Tiwari will eye post of Deputy Chief Minister if Congress l comes to power. At present, Ludhiana east constituency is represented by Ranjit Singh Dhillon of Shiromani Akali Dal. The ruling party has again fielded Dhillon for 2017 elections. Independent councilor Daljit Singh Grewal is also contesting elections on ticket of Aam Aadmi party (AAP). In 2012, Grewal contested elections as independent candidate and got twenty eight thousand votes.

As the name of Manish Tewari is almost final from Ludhiana east, ticket aspirants from this segment have already started opposing his name as Tewari avoided contesting general elections in 2014. As many as 19 Congress leaders have applied for the Congress ticket and many of them are knocking the door of party high

command and their political bosses in Delhi. The top contenders for the party ticket from Ludhiana east are district Congress president Gurpreet Bassi Gogi, councillors Ashwani Sharma, Sanjay Talwar, and Varinder Sehgal.

From Ludhiana west, sitting MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashu who is Deputy Leader of opposition in Vidhan Sabha will be again Congress face from the constituency. No heavyweight has applied for the Congress ticket from west constituency.

Highly credible sources in Congress told that MLA Rakesh Pandey and Surinder Dawar will get ticket from Ludhiana North and central respectively. Earlier the party high command was planning to shift Pandey to Central constituency and Surinder Dawar to Ludhiana north.

The Congress high command is yet to decide candidates for Atam nagar and Ludhiana South. The candidates will be announced in second list likely to be released on December 14 and the party is planning top field heavyweight and prominent personality against Independent MLA Bains brothers who represent Atam Nagar and South constituencies.