Neeraj Bagga
Amritsar, January 15
The Congress’ central election committee has re-nominated nine candidates in its list of 10 released for Amritsar district, which has a total of 11 Assembly constituencies.
The only seat from where a candidate is yet to be announced is Attari. Non-inclusion of sitting MLA Tarsem Singh DC from the seat is being seen as a surprise move. Party insiders say the name of singer Lakhwinder Wadali is doing the rounds, while Navneet Kaur, a Youth Congress leader, and Tarsem Singh Sialka, a Punjab State SC Commission member, have also applied for a ticket from the seat.
Jagwinder Pal Singh aka Jagga Majithia, 60, who has been fielded from the Majitha seat is the lone new face. Jagga Majithia is the younger brother of Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lalli Majithia, who had switched over to the Aam Aadmi Party recently. Political experts are of the view the move is aimed at stopping the split of party votes in the rural segment by fielding brother against brother.
Jagga Majithia, who had won the election of councillor in 1992 and remained general secretary of the Punjab Youth Congress, claimed he enjoyed support of top leaders, including MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla. Only two Congress leaders from Mahitha went with his brother Lalli Majithia, he maintained.
Those re-nominated included Navjot Singh Sidhu (Amritsar East), Deputy CM OP Soni (Amritsar Central), Raj Kumar Verka (Amritsar West), Harpratap Singh Ajnala (Ajnala), Sukhwinder Singh Sarkaria (Rajasansi), Sukhwinder Singh Danny Bandala (Jandiala), Santokh Singh Bhalaipur (Baba Bakala), Inderbir Singh Bolaria (Amritsar South) and Sunil Dutti (Amritsar North).
Amritsar dist: 9 retained, no word on Attari
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