Congress announces 3rd list of candidates for Punjab polls

NEW DELHI: Many leaders who switched over to the party from Akali Dal figure in Congress's third list of 23 candidates for the Punjab assembly polls on February 4.

With this, the total number of candidates announced by the party has gone up to 100 out of total 117 seats.

The list was announced by Congress General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry after it was cleared last night by the Central Election Committee of the party headed by Sonia Gandhi.


Rajwinder Kaur Bhagikay, who was a sitting MLA from Akali Dal and joined Congress few days ago, has been given ticket from Nihal Singhwala constituency while former Lok Sabha MP Mohinder Singh Kay Pee has been fielded from Adampur seat.

Deepinder Singh Dhillon, who had unsuccessfully contested against Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh's wife Preneet Kaur in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as a Akali nominee, has been given ticket from Dara Bassi seat.

Akali leader Kamaljit Singh Karwal, who switched allegiance to Congress from Akali Dal, will fight the polls from Atam Nagar seat while Harminder Singh Jassi, a relative of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, has been fielded from the Maur seat.

Devinder Gubaya, son of Akali sitting MP from Firozpur, Sher Singh Gubaya, has been given ticket from Fazilka seat.

Former CPI leader Nathu Ram, who also switched over to Congress, will contest from Balluana while Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, wife of Lok Sabha MP from Jalandhar Santokh Singh Cahudhary has been fielded from Phillaur seat.

Former minister Joginder Singh Mann will contest from prestigious Phagwara seat and five-time MLA Rakesh Pandey will fight the polls from Ludhiana North constituency.

Rajinder Singh, son of former Minister Lal Singh, has been given ticket from Samana constituency. The candidature for Sanour seat, where Lal Singh is a sitting MLA, has not been announced. The party had announced that only one member from a family will get ticket and that there will be no compromise on it.

Congress had announced the first list 61 candidates on December 15 and and second list of 16 nominees on December 23. Hectic lobbying is underway for the remaining 17 seats.