Punjab: Husbands off to Delhi as MPs, wives set to fight to be MLAs

Rajmeet Singh and Ravi Dhaliwal

Chandigarh/Gurdaspur, June 19

It could turn out to be a family affair in the Punjab Congress, if the reports of wannabe candidates for the coming byelections in Punjab are any indication.

Upon resignation of Ludhiana MP Amrinder Raja Warring as the Gidderbaha MLA and Gurdsapur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa as Dera Baba Nanak MLA, party circles are agog with speculation of the two top leaders fielding their spouses from their family bastions.

Barring the Jalandhar (West) byelections, the Election Commission has yet to notify the byelections for the other Assembly segments – Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Barnala and Chabbewal, that have fallen vacant upon the MLAs being elected as MPs in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. Both Warring and Randhawa resigned as MLAs recently.

Party leaders feel that upon winning as MPs, Warring and Randhawa would be busy in Parliament and fielding their wives in the Assembly elections would ensure their foothold in the state politics and allow them to retain their family bastions.

For the Gidderbaha seat, Amrita Singh, wife of MP Amrinder Raja Warring is learnt to be the frontrunner for defending the seat. Warring has been MLA from Gidderbaha for the last three consecutive terms. “Otherwise also, Amrita had always been actively involved in the campaign of her husband and her name was also doing the rounds for the Bathinda Parliamentary seat, before Jeet Mohinder Sidhu’s nomination was finalised by the party”, said a senior party leader.

For the four-time Dera Baba Nanak MLA and now Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa’s, his spouse Jatinder Kaur has emerged as the frontrunner for the party ticket. Party sources say that official approval of Jatinder Kaur’s name is a foregone conclusion as there is no other Congress leader, big or small, in the fray.

Randhawa, over the years, has become a close confidant of the Gandhi family. Moreover, with the party winning 11 out of the 25 seats in Rajasthan, his stature within the party has increased manifold. The AICC had appointed him as the party’s observer for Rajasthan.

It is not the first time that wife of any MP or MLA has been fielded. When Capt Amarinder Singh was the CM, his wife had won as MP from Patiala. Also, when Partap Singh Bajwa was MP, his wife Charanjit Kaur was elected as the MLA from Qadian.