Keeping AAP in crosshairs, Congress steps up bid to pick LS faces for all Punjab seats

Six sitting MPs are among candidates recommended by Punjab Cong to AICC screening committee, with the party set to select candidates on 'winnability'

AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab Devender Yadav with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. (Facebook/Indian National Congress - Punjab)

Following the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s announcement to go solo in Punjab in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the state Congress has recommended multiple names for each of the state’s 13 Lok Sabha seats to the AICC-constituted screening committee led by Bhakta Charan Das.

In addition to the recommended names, the party may also invite applications from workers who wish to contest the seats. The issue was discussed in the meeting of the screening committee, which has been tasked with shortlisting of the Lok Sabha candidates, at the Punjab Congress Bhawan in Chandigarh on Monday. The panel, which met for the second time, includes AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab Devender Yadav, state party chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa.

Congress insiders said six sitting MPs are among the candidates recommended to the screening committee.

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“A decision on inviting more applications will be taken in a day or two and if approved, additional names will be sent to the screening committee. The exercise is being conducted in a professional manner,” Warring told The Indian Express. Once all the applications are received, the Congress will assess the candidates on the basis of “winnability” through an internal survey before taking a final decision.

A senior Congress leader said the party will give due representation to leaders across communities. “Discussions are also being held to Hindu candidates in constituencies where urban voters are in the majority,” he said, adding that the selection of Dalit candidates for the SC-reserved seats will largely be based on the quantum of sub-caste votes.

On February 1, the 27-member Punjab Congress’s election committee, comprising Warring, Bajwa, former CM Charanjit Singh Channi and former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, held a video conference with the screening committee as the Congress wants to finalise candidates at the earliest to kickstart the campaign sooner than its rivals, a senior party leader said.

The state Congress, which is the principal Opposition, has been largely opposed to any pre-poll alliance with the AAP, although both parties are constituents of the INDIA bloc.

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AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge, at a party workers’ convention in Samrala on Sunday, hinted that the Congress-AAP alliance in Punjab was not working out. “The decision to have an INDIA bloc was taken for the country and not just Punjab,” he had said. Meanwhile, Warring was more vocal and said the Congress would “crush” the ruling AAP in the parliamentary polls in the state.

The Congress has also been carrying out a similar exercise in neighbouring Haryana to shortlist its Lok Sabha candidates there.

Dealing a blow to the INDIA alliance, AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced last Saturday that his party will contest all 13 seats in Punjab as well as the Chandigarh seat on its own steam.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress had won eight seats as against the SAD’s two seats and the BJP’s two in Punjab. The AAP had then won just one seat. The Chandigarh seat was won by the BJP’s Kirron Kher.