New Delhi, January 19
As the Congress struggles to find a suitable candidate for the prestigious Amritsar seat, former MP and senior party leader from Punjab Jagmeet Singh Brar’s name has been added to the lengthening list of contenders.
Congress sources admit that the name of Brar, who represented Faridkot twice in the Lok Sabha, is on the list under consideration.
There is a growing view in the party that Brar will be the right choice to take on BJP’s Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had to resign after he was convicted in a case of culpable homicide. Mr Brar’s credentials are that he is young, articulate and is a Jat Sikh, who has a considerable mass following, both among the Sikhs and the Hindus. Besides, he is a known face and name and will need no introduction.
All this is important since the Congress will be pitted against the immensely popular former cricketer and television star Navjot Singh Sidhu, who will the BJP’s star campaigner even if he does not contest again.
Brar met the Congress president last evening to discuss the distribution of tickets for the next month’s Punjab Assembly poll.
Others in the race include Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singh Singla, former actor-turned-politician Rajesh Khanna and Amritsar Mayor Sunil Dutti. Singla, who won from Bathinda in the last Assembly
poll, is keen to move to Delhi and is learnt to be pressing his claim for the Amritsar seat on the plea that the constituency has been traditionally held by a Congress Hindu candidate since it has a sizeable Hindu population.
Meanwhile, the suspense over the Amritsar seat continues as the party leadership is still to take a final view. AICC sources say the party is keen to wrest the seat back from the BJP and wants to field a strong candidate from there. Punjab Congress was keen that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh contested from Amritsar as this would have assured a landslide victory for the party on this seat as well as in the state. However, their request was turned down.
The party has been also not been able to announce candidates for Bathinda, Samana and Talwandi Sabo Assembly seats. If Singla is not named for the Amritsar seat, he is expected to contest from Bathinda again. The announcement for Samana has been delayed as Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s brother Malvinder Singh has staked claim to the ticket from there. Brahm Mahendra, who lost last time time, is also in the race. Talwandi Sabo was won by Independent candidate Jit Mahendra Sidhu, but he has since joined the Congress and is a front-runner for the seat.
