Punjab Congress in huddle for LS bypoll for Sangrur seat

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, May 26

After a drubbing in the recent Assembly elections, the Punjab Congress leadership on Thursday held closed-door meetings with senior party leaders to pick a strong candidate for the upcoming byelections to the Sangrur parliamentary seat, announced yesterday.

With the AAP in power and the BJP trying to get a foothold in the state ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, Congress’ state incharge Harish Chaudhary along with PCC chief Amrinder Raja Warring sought feedback from the leaders on the criteria to be followed in selecting the candidate.

During the daylong meetings, the leaders discussed various permutations and combinations based on caste and region that their opponents were likely to adopt in choosing their candidates.

Sources said in the initial discussions, names of former Dhuri MLA Dalvir Singh Goldy, his wife Simrat Kaur Khangura and former minister Vijay Inder Singla were discussed. Most of the leaders favoured Goldy or his wife for the nomination, it is learnt.

Singla, a former minister, is learnt to be reluctant to contest the byelection. The name of the candidate would be finalised in the next few days.

Before zeroing in on the candidates, the leaders discussed the profiles of the nine Assembly segments — Lehra, Dirba, Sunam, Bhadaur, Barnala, Mehal Kalan, Malerkotla, Dhuri and Sangrur. All have been won by AAP candidates.

Discussions were held on the performance of party candidates in the last Assembly and parliamentary elections.

The seat was considered to be an Akali citadel, before CM Bhagwant Mann won it back to back in the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections.

Warring said discussion were held on various parameters related to the byelections. A detailed evaluation of the Congress leaders on all nine segments falling under the Sangrur parliamentary seat was being done to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the potential candidates. This will be the first acid test for Warring after assuming the charge of PCC chief a month ago.

Focus on track record

• Leaders discussed permutations and combinations based on caste and region that opponents were likely to adopt
• Discussions were held on the performance of party candidates in the last Assembly and parliamentary elections
• Evaluation of potential candidate on the nine segments, won by AAP in the recent Assembly polls, was also done