The City Headlines
Ludhiana, January 16
Ludhiana district has 14 Assembly constituencies. Out of those, Congress has announced their candidates from 9 assembly constituencies. On the rest of the five constituencies, there are multiple claimants of MLA tickets from Congress and there is a tug of war between them.
Sahnewal, Ludhiana South, Jagraon, Gill and Samrala are the constituencies where no candidate has been announced till now from the Congress side.
According to the sources, there are multiple claimants for the MLA ticket from Congress on these constituencies. That is the main reason why Congress’s high command has still not come to any decision about these 5 constituencies of Ludhiana.
Samrala
Congress’ Amrik Singh Dhillon is the sitting MLA from Samrala. He has won the elections four times. However, now, he wants his grandson Karanvir Singh Dhillon to be the candidate from the constituency.
The reports also suggest that there are four other claimants for the ticket of the Samrala assembly constituency.
Congress and BJP are the two main political parties that have not announced their candidates from Samrala. It has become a hot seat in Punjab after farmers’ leader Balbir Singh Rajewal announced that he would fight the elections from the Samrala constituency. From AAP, Jagtar Singh Dayalpura will contest the elections in Samrala and from SAD/BSP, Paramjit Singh Dhillon is the candidate.
Jagraon
It is to be noted that AAP’s Jagtar Singh Hissowal had joined the Congress recently. In 2017, he had won the Assembly elections from Raikot on AAP’s ticket. However, from the Raikot constituency, Congress has given the ticket to MP Amar Singh’s son Kamil Amar Singh.
Hissowal had said that he wanted to contest the elections from the Jagraon seat on Congress’ ticket. Other than him, there are five other claimants of the Jagraon ticket, including former Central Home Minister Buta Singh’s daughter Gurkirat Kaur.
Sahnewal
Sahnewal is another rural constituency of Ludhiana where Congress has not announced its candidate. As per the reports, 31 Congress leaders have demanded the ticket from Sahnewal. Satwinder Kaur Bitti, who lost the elections in 2017, is also the claimant of the ticket from Congress. Former CM Rajinder Bhatthal’s son-in-law Bikram Bajwa is also in the race of getting a ticket from Congress in Sahnewal.
Gill
Kuldip Singh Vaid is Congress’ sitting MLA from Gill constituency. However, there are several other party leaders who want the ticket from Gill constituency. Several senior leaders have asked Kuldip Singh Vaid to contest elections from the Jagraon ticket. However, he reportedly wants to contest the elections from Gill constituency. Balbir Barewal is in the race to get the MLA ticket from the Gill constituency.
Ludhiana South
It is one of the most important constituencies in Ludhiana. Currently, Lok Insaf Party’s Balwinder Singh Bains is the MLA from this seat. From Congress, Deputy mayor Paramjit Kaur and nine other Congress leaders have demanded the MLA ticket from the constituency.
