The wait for the announcement of its candidates by the Congress for the Assembly elections is turning out be a long one for the state party leaders. With almost all major political parties out with their list of candidates for the elections, the suspense in the declaration of its candidates is now bothering some of the middle-level state leaders.
The Congress, which is deliberating in Delhi over the allotment of party tickets, is yet to come out with a final list. The list was supposed to be released Monday but was delayed when party leaders were not able to reach consensus on around three dozen seats. The party is still holding meetings to finetune its list, which is supposed to be out by Wednesday. Congress sources say that it is grappling with the problem of adjusting kith and kin of senior leaders and some other leaders were forced to shift from their traditional constituencies due to delimitation of the constituencies.
Even though party leaders from the state were earlier claiming that “winnability” would be the only criteria for the allotment of tickets, the delay in the release of the list brought to the fore the party’s vulnerability where it has to adjust the kith of many senior leaders.
Sources say that there is a possibility party would adjust relatives of at least three of its MPs. They say that Gurdaspur MP Partpa Singh Bajwa’s wife Charanjit Singh Bajwa can be the party candidate from his home seat of Qadian. Similarly, Jalandhar MP Mohinder Singh is seeking a ticket for his wife Suman Kapyee from Jalandhar West and Hoshiarpur MP Santosh Chaudhary’s husband Ram Lubaya can be the candidate from Sham Chaursi constituency.
Similarly. there is a very strong possibility that a ticket might be allotted to Rajinder Kaur Bhattal’s son-in-law Vikram Bajwa from Sahnewal. The late CM Beant Singh’s grandson Gurkirat Singh can get a ticket from Khanna constituency and Jagmeet Brar’s brother Ripjit Brar can get a ticket from Muktsar constituency.
PCC chief Amarinder Singh’s brother Raja Malvinder Singh is seeking a ticket from the Samana seat.
Congress sources feel that the party was keen to adjust senior leaders so that they did not cause problems for the party in their areas of influence. However, some of the Congress leaders, on condition of anonymity, said that the policy of “adjustment” would not be acceptable to middle-rung state leaders who themselves aspire for the party tickets.