Cong releases 2nd list of 16 candidates, drops one sitting MLA, renames five

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 23

The Congress on Friday declared its second list of 16 candidates for the Punjab Assembly elections, dropping one sitting MLA and re-nominating five others.

Tarlochan Singh Soondh, the sitting Congress MLA from Banga reserved segment, has been dropped in favour of Satnam Singh Kainth, a former MP and BSP leader, who unsuccessfully contested Adampur SC seat in 2012.

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Kainth was then defeated by Akali Dal’s Pawan Kumar Tinu by a margin of over 19,000 votes.

Read: Badal takes aim at Congress over ‘infighting’ for tickets

The party has re-nominated the following sitting MLAs to defend their seats—three time MLA Jagmohan Singh Kang in Kharar; three time MLA Amrik Singh Dhillon in Samrala; Indian Youth Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring in Gidderbaha and Karan Kaur Brar in Muktsar.

Sitting MLA from Bhadaur SC segment Mohammad Sadique, 77, has been shifted to Jaito reserved constituency raising possibilities of the Congress dropping Jaito MLA Joginder Singh Panjgraian, whose survey reports are poor.

MLA Ajaib Singh Bhatti has been shifted to Malout SC seat.

By re-nominating Warring from Gidderbaha, the Congress has given clear signals that sitting MLAs in general segments will not be allowed to shift their seats. The swap rule will only be allowed for reserved segment candidates.

From the Kartarpur SC seat, the Congress has fielded Choudhry Surinder Singh, the son of its late leader Choudhry Jagjit SIngh.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has meanwhile fielded two Punjab Youth Congress leaders this time — Barinder Pahara from Gurdaspur and Daman Bajwa from Sunam.

First list of Congress candidates

The nomination of Bajwa met with stiff resistance with a delegation led by Punjab Congress general secretary Rajinder Deepa protesting in AICC and raising slogans against Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh.

With today’s list, the Congress has declared 77 candidates having named 61 in the first list.

Other candidates in today’s list are Sukhpal Bhullar (Khemkaran), Gurwinder Atwal (Bholath), Darshan Lal Mangepur (Balachaur), ex PPP leader Harvinder Laddi (Bathinda Rural), Nirmal Nimma (Bhadaur SC) and Surjeet Dhiman (Amargarh).

Congress has now re-nominated 37 of its sitting MLAs. Six (Kang, Dhillon, Warring, Brar, Sadique and Bhatti) were re-nominated today and 31 in the previous list. 

Following is Friday's list:

Gurdaspur                     Barinderjit Singh Pahra

Khemkaran                 Sukhpal Singh Bhullar

Bholath                         Gurwinder Singh Atwal

Kartarpur SC                 Ch Surinder Singh

Banga SC                   Satnarn Singh Kainth

Balachaur                    Ch Darshan Lal Mangepur

Kharar                           Jagmohan Singh Kang

Samrala                        Amrik Singh Dhillon

Gidderbaha                   Amrinder Singh Raja Warring

Malout SC                   Ajaib Singh Bhatti

Muktsar                        Karan Kaur Brar

Jaitu SC                     Mohd Sadique

Bathinda Rural- SC    Harvinder Singh Laddi

Sunam                         Daman Thind Bajwa

Bhadaur SC                Nirmal Singh Nimma

Amargarh                      Surjeet Singh Dhiman