223 in the fray from district after nominations

Manav Mander 

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 18 

Today was the last day for filing nominations. With 118 candidates filing their papers on the last day, the total number of nominations filed from Ludhiana district has gone up to 223. 

Congress leaders Kulwant Sidhu and others, who raised a hue and cry after ticket was allotted to new entry into the party, Kamaljeet Singh Karwal, but they were present during a show of strength with Karwal today.  Kulwant, who was planning to contest as an Independent in protest against ticket allocation to Karwal from the Atam Nagar constituency, today field his papers as a covering candidate for the latter. 

Others Congress leaders, including Ashok Parashar, Rakesh Parashar, Parvinder Lapran, Gurbhej Chabbra, block presidents Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Yadwinder Singh Raju, were present during the filing of nomination papers at the Zone A office.

Congress leaders KK Bawa and Gurdeep Kaur, who had earlier announced that they would not support Karwal, today came in his support.

Karwal, after filing his nomination, said: “The Congress is united in the Atam Nagar constituency and his opponents were spreading rumours of revolt.” 

“The Congress will prepare a road map for the development of Atam Nagar and implement it. He said in the past five years, the constituency was ignored in the terms of development as the sitting MLA was busy in getting publicity,” he added. 

Meanwhile, Gurmail Singh Pehalwan, Punjab Congress general secretary, who was unhappy with the party’s decision to give ticket from Ludhiana-East to Sanjay Talwar, filed his nomination papers as an Independent from the same segment. 

Pehalwan, who had lost to the SAD candidate Ranjit Dhillon in the 2012 assembly elections, said: “The party has committed a blunder by overlooking the candidature of senior leader and former union minister Manish Tewari. I had forgone my claim for ticket only in support of Tewari”.

Rakesh Pandey from the Congress also filed his nominations from Ludhiana-North. Pandey’s nomination was announced quite late by the party although he was a sitting MLA. Hemraj Aggarwal had resigned from the Congress to contest as an Independent after ticket was allotted to Pandey. 

New entrant in the Congress, Bhupinder Sidhu also filed his nominations from Ludhiana-South.

The BJP’s Gurdev Sharma filed his nomination from Ludhiana-Central. The announcement of his name had jolted veteran BJP leader Sat Pal Gosain, who had claimed ticket from this constituency. 

Gurmeet Singh Kular, SAD-BJP candidate, submitted his nomination papers to Dr Shikha Bhagat, returning officer for the Atam Nagar constituency. 

Kular said he had opted politics as a medium to serve people and industry rather than as a profession. Kular also said if he was elected from Atam Nagar, then he would make it one of the model constituencies of Punjab. Another SAD candidate, Ranjit Singh Dhillon, filed his nomination papers for Ludhiana-East. Both candidates were accompanied by their near and dear ones.