Punjab poll: Four new faces in second Congress list of 16

Chandigarh: The Punjab Congress on Thursday declared its second list of 16 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections, dropping two of its sitting MLAs and renominating six others and bringing in four fresh faces.

Six of the party’s sitting MLAs have been retained in this list, with two of them being shifted to new constituencies. The list also includes three fresh faces — Darshan Lal Mangepur, Harwinder Singh Laddi (ex-PPP) and Nirmal Singh Nimma, a two-time MLA from BSP. Two sitting MLAs — Joginder Singh Panjgrain and Tarlochan Singh — have not found place in this list. The two youth candidates nominated to contest these polls are Birenderjit Singh Pahra (Gurdaspur) and Daman Thind Bajwa (Sunam).

Only credible and winnable candidates have been given the tickets, said Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh. The four sitting MLAs who have retained their seats in the second list are national Youth Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring (Gidderbaha), Amrik Singh Dhillon (Samrala), Jagmohan Singh Kang (Kharar) and Karan Kaur Brar (Muktsar). Ms Karan and Ms Daman are the two women in this list, taking the total number of women candidates declared by the party so far to eight. The party has replaced the sitting MLA from Jaitu (SC), and Banga (SC) constituencies.

In Jaitu (SC), sitting MLA Joginder Singh Panjgrain has been dropped and replaced with Mohd Sadique. Mr Sidique was elected from Badhaur (SC) constituency in 2012 Assembly polls. Sitting MLA from Banga (SC) Tarlochan Singh has also been dropped and replaced by Satnam Singh, who had contested from Adampur (SC) in the last polls.

The party has moved MLA Ajaib Singh Bhatti from Bucho Mandi (SC) to Mallout (SC).Other notable inclusions in the second list are Gurwinder Singh Atwal (Bholath — the constituency of SAD’s Bibi Jagir Kaur) and Chaudhary Surender Singh (Kartarpur — the seat held by Sarwan Singh Phillaur who recently left SAD to join the Congress).

The party, in its second list, has dropped all those candidates who had lost the 2012 polls except Surjit Singh Dhiman, whom the party has once again fielded from Amargarh, where he was defeated last time by a mere 4406 votes. With these announcements, the Congress has declared its candidates for 77 of the total 117 Assembly constituencies in Punjab. The remaining tickets are likely to be announced over the next few days.