Dr Sidhu queers the pitch for former ministers

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 30

The race for the Congress ticket from the Chandigarh Lok Sabha segment began today with the party formally starting the process of accepting applications from aspirants.

AICC in-charge for Chandigarh Asha Kumari told The Tribune that anyone was free to apply but it was for the party leadership to finalise the candidate. Winnability, she said, would be the top criterion for selecting the candidate.

Even as the formal process of candidate selection was kicked off, two clear Congress contenders in the race for the nomination are former ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and Manish Tewari.

Bansal, former Railway Minister, is seen in Congress circles as a “natural claimant” to the Chandigarh ticket having represented the constituency four times in the 10th, 13th, 14th and 15th Lok Sabhas.

On the other hand, Tewari, a former MP from Ludhiana who had excused himself from the 2014 Lok Sabha contest on health grounds, is back in action and has thrown his hat in the Chandigarh ring.

Queering the pitch for the two former ministers is Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, the wife of Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who too has staked her claim to the seat, to the surprise of AICC leaders.

Dr Sidhu’s arrival on the scene has put the Congress in a bind with insiders wondering what prompted the lady to come all the way to the City Beautiful in her hunt for a Lok Sabha seat.

“If at all, Ms Sidhu is best eligible to contest from Amritsar, the area she has served in different capacities and the segment her husband has represented in the Lok Sabha in the past. She is free to apply from anywhere and it is really up to the party leadership to see who fits the Congress bill in Chandigarh,” an AICC source said.

Bansal for his part has been active in Chandigarh ever since he resigned as Railway Minister in May 2013 after the CBI arrested his nephew for allegedly trying to fix the promotion of a member in the Railway Board. Bansal continues to face the heat of Railgate although it remains to be seen if the party holds the case against him in selecting the Chandigarh candidate.

A section in the Congress calls Bansal and Navjot Kaur as “rail-hit” candidates with Bansal facing troubles on account of the 2013 case and Navjot Kaur finding herself at the centre of a major train accident in Amritsar recently.

That is not to say that Bansal does not have anything going for him. A senior AICC leader described him as a “natural frontrunner” for the Congress ticket from Chandigarh being a former MP, a local and someone with networks across the city.

When contacted, Manish Tewari told The Tribune quite frankly today that he considered himself in the best position to represent the LS segment. “Although I would not like to comment on anyone else staking a claim on the Chandigarh seat, what I would like to say is I have a historical connection to the city. And I feel I am in the best position to represent the constituency. It goes without saying though that the decision of the Congress leadership is the final word on this,” he said.

Manish’s father the late VN Tewari was a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha and was killed by terrorists outside his house in Sector 24, Chandigarh, on April 3, 1984. His mother spent her entire career in the PGI and was Professor Emeritus there post-retirement. She was also a nominated member of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation from 2011 to 2016.