Punjab: Denied ticket, two Congress ex-MPs mull contesting as Independent

“Party soldiers like us were ignored for obliging the rich and new leaders,” the three-time MP said.

Congress has fielded sitting Chabbewal MLA, Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal. He is considered to be a close confidant of Amarinder.

She said that her family, including husband and father-in-law, has served the party for nine decades. “I am of same age as Parneet Kaur. She has been given the ticket, but I have been denied,” she added.

In 2014 also, she was ignored by the party that granted the ticket former MP from Jalandhar Mohinder Singh Kay Pee, she said.

On the other hand, Mohinder Singh said he would take a call on whether to enter the fray as an Independent after consulting his supporters and family. The 62-year-old former MP, who had won from Jalandhar in 2009 but lost in 2014 when the Congress shifted him to Hoshiarpur parliamentary constituency, Friday said that even though he enjoyed a clean image, his claims for a poll ticket had been overlooked.

Kay Pee termed this denial his “political murder”.

Notably, the Congress has reposed its faith in sitting MP from Jalandhar, Chaudhary Santokh Singh, by re-nominating him from the seat.

“I am an old Congressman. Me and my family have always been loyal to the party… By denying ticket to me, they have committed my political murder, which I was not expecting. There is a great resentment among my supporters as they feel a person who enjoys a clean image, one who and his family dedicated all their lives for the party, and whose family made sacrifice during the days of terror in Punjab, has been denied the ticket,” Kaypee told reporters in Jalandhar.

The former Congress MP, however, maintained that he would not join any party even though he said a call on whether to contest as an Independent candidate from Jalandhar will be taken after consulting his supporters and family.

“I will consult my supporters, my family before taking any decision,” Kaypee said.