Punjab Congress panel fails to reach consensus on remaining seats, Rahul to take call

The party leaders will meet Rahul Gandhi at 9 am on Saturday and let him take a call on the fate of the seven candidates.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi

Despite Congress president Rahul Gandhi asking the party’s Punjab unit to rethink the choice of candidates for seven constituencies, the state screening committee was unable to reach a consensus.

The screening committee comprising Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, PPCC president Sunil Jakhar, general secretary in-charge Asha Kumari and senior Congress leader KC Venugopal met in Delhi on Friday but the sources said “there was no change in the choice of candidates.”

The party leaders will meet Rahul Gandhi at 9 am on Saturday and let him take a call on the fate of the seven candidates. The Congress has announced six candidates after Central Election Committee meet a few days ago. The remaining seven names were held back as Gandhi had indicated that they were not suitable candidates and the leaders should come back with a consensus on the names.

The seven constituencies are: Ferozepur, Faridkot, Bathinda, Sangrur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Anandpur Sahib and Khadoor Sahib. For Ferozepur, the committee discussed names of Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi and Raminder Awla. While CM has been pushing for Rana Sodhi, Jakhar has been opposing him. A status quo prevailed on his name even today, said sources.

In Bathinda, the CM is pushing for PWD Minister Vijay Inder Singla but Gandhi had not gone with this choice in the CEC. Name of former Indian Youth Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring is also being discussed.

Name of Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu also came up but it was left to party president to take a call on her.

In Khadoor Sahib also, Amarinder is favouring Jasbir Singh Dimpa while Jakhar is supporting Inderjit Singh Zira. A status quo on this seat is also continuing.

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In Faridkot, while Amarinder was favouring Mohd Sadiq, concerns about not fielding a Majhbi Sikh remained in the CEC. There was no change in the decision even today. In Anandpur Sahib, Amarinder is supporting former Union Minister Manish Tewari and Jakhar is opposing him to favour CM’s political secretary Capt Sandeep Sandhu. Again, there was a lack of consensus on the issue.

Similarly, Fatehgarh Sahib too witnessed no change.