Congress banks on Amrinder Singh Raja Warring to take on turncoat Ravneet Bittu

Chandigarh, April 29

In its third list of four candidates released for Punjab today, the Congress announced the name of state party president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring from the Ludhiana seat against BJP candidate and sitting MP Ravneet Bittu, who recently left the Congress to join the BJP.

Yet to pick candidate for Ferozepur seat

• The party has so far announced the names of its candidates for 12 of the 13 seats in state
• The candidate for the Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency is yet to be named by the Cong

The party announced the candidature of senior leaders Sukhjinder Randhawa and Vijay Inder Singla from the Gurdaspur and Anandpur Sahib seats, respectively. Both are former Cabinet ministers. While Randhawa is the party affairs in-charge of the Rajasthan Congress, Singla holds a key post in the AICC. For the Khadoor Sahib seat, the party has fielded former Moga MLA Kulbir Zira.

With today’s list, the party has so far announced the names of candidates for 12 of the 13 seats. The candidate for the Ferozepur seat is yet to be announced. In the first two lists, the candidature of Gurjeet Singh Aujla (Amritsar), Amar Singh (Fatehgarh Sahib), Charanjit Singh Channi (Jalandhar), Jeet Mohinder Singh (Bathinda), Sukhpal Singh Khaira (Sangrur), Dr Dharamvira Gandhi (Patiala), Yamini Gomar (Hoshiarpur) and Amarjit Kaur Sahoke (Faridkot) was announced. Soon after the announcement of the ticket, the PPCC chief took to Twitter, “Those once entrusted with responsibility and showered support by the party turned out to be deserters. First, it was against the power of the Badals in Bathinda, now it’s against these deserters.”

A senior party leader said, “It is matter of prestige for Warring as the outcome of the poll would decide his future in the organisation”. A Jat Sikh, Warring had unsuccessfully contested the Bathinda seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.