Congress repeats 8 candidates in first list

Tribune News Service

Manav Mander

Ludhiana, January 15

The Congress has repeated eight out of nine old candidates in the first list released today by the party. Out of the total 14 seats, names of candidates for nine seats were announced today.

After the announcement, supporters made a beeline to meet the candidates to congratulate them. Some danced on the beat of dhol and some distributed laddoos.

In the Ludhiana urban, out of total seven seats, names of candidates for five constituencies have been announced. Out of the five, four are the siting MLAs — Bharat Bhushan Ashu from Ludhiana West, Sanjeev Talwar from East, Surinder Dawar from Central and Rakesh Pandey from North. For the Atam Nagar constituency, Kamaljeet Singh Karwal who lost in the last elections, has been fielded again.

During the public gathering at Dana Mandi, PPCC president, Navjot Singh Sidhu had already hinted at Karwal being chosen from the Atam Nagar constituency.

Seats of Ashu and Dawar were said to be final and Sanjeev Talwar’s goodwill with Sidhu and CM Channi led to retaining of his seat. Rakesh Pandey has also managed to keep his seat. He is five-time MLA from the same constituency.

The Ludhiana West constituency has been predominantly a Congress-dominated constituency. The seat was won by the Congress two times in a row by Bharat Bhushan Ashu in 2017 and 2012. In 2017, Ashu defeated the AAP’s Ahbaab Grewal. Ashu won with the highest margin of 36,521 votes and surpassed his last margin of the 2012 elections with 600 more votes. In 2012, Ashu had defeated the BJP’s Rajinder Bhandari to win the seat. In 2012, Ashu got 69,125 votes, while 33,203 votes were polled in favour of Bhandari.

Rakesh Pandey is five-time MLA from the Ludhiana North constituency. It was in 1992 that Pandey was elected MLA from the Ludhiana North constituency and created history by winning continuously for four times from the constituency. A margin of 23,000 votes in 2002 elections was a record.

Surinder Dawar has been elected twice from the Central constituency. He was elected to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 2002, 2012 and again in 2017.

Sanjeev Talwar was elected to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha first time in 2017 from the Ludhiana East constituency. He has remained a councillor in the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, during 2002-2007, 2007-2012, 2012-2017 and a trustee of Improvement Trust, Ludhiana, from 2002 to 2007.

Apart from these seats, four more seats have been announced. Gurkirat Singh Kotli has been fielded again from Khanna and Lakhvir Singh Lakha has been given ticket from Payal. Both are sitting MLAs. Ticket from the Raikot constituency has been given to Amar Singh’s son Kamil Amar Singh.

Capt Sandeep Singh Sandhu, who lost from Dakha, has been given the ticket again.

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