With the Lok Sabha elections on the horizon, Congress announced its candidates on Sunday, revealing six nominees for Punjab's parliamentary seats. The highlight of this list is Charanjit Singh Channi, who will be contesting from the pivotal Jalandhar constituency. Earlier, the party had only declared Manish Tewari as a candidate for the Chandigarh seat.
The second list for Punjab, released on Sunday, features Gurjeet Singh Aujla representing Amritsar, Amar Singh for Fatehgarh Sahib, Jeet Mohinder Singh from Bathinda, Sukhpal Singh from Sangrur, and Dharamvir Gandhi for Patiala. This demonstrates the party's commitment to presenting strong contenders across all six available seats in Punjab.
Manish Tewari enters the fray from Chandigarh
The Congress, until now, had announced only their Chandigarh candidate. Manish Tewari will be contesting from this seat. On Saturday, April 13th, Congress had released a list of 16 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including former Union Minister Manish Tewari for the Chandigarh constituency.
In addition to Punjab, announcements were also made for three Delhi seats, notably for Kanhaiya Kumar, who will be running from North East Delhi. JP Agarwal from Chandni Chowk and Udit Raj from North West Delhi have been named as well. Congress's Saturday release of 16 candidates features Manish Tewari taking on the Chandigarh seat.
Speculation about Channi's candidacy concludes
This second list sends a clear signal that Congress remains resilient in Punjab. There had been speculation that Channi might leave Congress for the BJP, as reported on some news websites. However, close sources to Channi denied these claims. Pratap Singh Bajwa, the leader of the Congress opposition in the Punjab Assembly, rejected these rumors, accusing the BJP of spreading false news. BJP spokesperson Anil Sarin commented that he was unaware of any such developments.
