Former judges, bureaucrats in race for ticket from Fatehgarh

Surinder Bhardwaj

Fatehgarh Sahib, March 24

The Fatehgarh Sahib (reserved) parliamentary constituency is likely to witness a keen contest between highly qualified candidates, say sources. They say the Congress, SAD and AAP are likely to field candidates who are retired bureaucrats or judges.

The Congress has forwarded a panel of three candidates — Dr Amar Singh (IAS), former Chief Secretary of MP cadre; Manmohan Singh, retired Chief Engineer; and Gurpreet Singh GP, MLA, Bassi Pathana. Besides, Deepak Jyoti, an IAS aspirant, is also trying.

Meanwhile, SAD is likely to field Darbara Singh Guru (IAS), former Principal Secretary to CM; Justice Nirmal Singh, former MLA; or Vikram Khalsa. The AAP on Sunday named Justice Zora Singh, head of the Jora Singh Commission. The Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) has already announced Manvinder Singh Giaspura, an engineer, as its candidate.

Interestingly, most of the retired bureaucrats have already started campaigning on their own by putting up hoardings and inserting pamphlets in newspapers, besides having get-togethers with their party leaders.

Fatehgarh Sahib constituency is spread over nine Assembly constituencies — Fatehgarh Sahib, Bassi Pathana, Amloh of Fatehgarh Sahib district, Khanna, Sahnewal, Samrala, Payal and Raikot of Ludhiana district and Amargarh of Sangrur district. There are 14,74,947 voters. Among the reserved category voters, the Ramdasia community has 80 per cent voters and Balmikis have 20 per cent so all parties will prefer to field Ramdasia candidates. Darbara Singh Guru of SAD and Amar Singh of the Congress belong to this community.

The Fatehgarh Sahib constituency was earlier part of the Ropar constituency.

CEO suspends Moga tehsildar

Moga: Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju on Sunday suspended Moga election tehsildar Balwinder Singh on charges of negligence in duty. The CEO said he had received a report from Moga District Magistrate Sandeep Hans that Balwinder was "not obeying orders on election duty and wasn't sending reports to the Election Commission". He was also absent from duty without any requisite prior permission, the DM wrote in his report to the CEO. After perusal of the report, the CEO ordered the suspension.

Taking the poll plunge

• Congress: Dr Amar Singh (IAS); Manmohan Singh, retd Chief Engineer; Gurpreet Singh GP, MLA (names on panel)
• SAD: Darbara Singh Guru (IAS); Justice Nirmal Singh, former MLA; Vikram Khalsa (all frontrunners)
• AAP: Justice Zora Singh (candidature already announced)
• PDA: Manvinder Singh Giaspura, engineer (announced)