M A I N   N E W S

Lambi to witness battle of Badals
SAD releases first list of 48 candidates
Naveen S Garewal/TNS

TURF war

n CM Parkash Singh Badal to contest from Lambi n CM’s brother Gurdas Badal likely PPP candidate n Sukhbir Badal’s name  not in the first list n Darbara Singh Guru, principal secretary to  CM (he resigned today) and PS Gill, former DGP, figure in the list. n Out of 117 seats, SAD will contest 94 leaving  23 to ally, BJP n Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon, 10 Akali ministers among nominees

Chandigarh, December 23
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has released its first list of party nominees for the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Putting all speculations to rest, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will recontest the Lambi constituency. He has sent out a clear signal that there was very little possibility of a rapprochement with estranged nephew Manpreet Badal and that Lambi would see a battle within the family.

Badal’s nomination at the beginning of the 48-member list that was released today is in line with the party’s recently adopted strategy of projecting the Chief Minister as the party’s chief ministerial candidate instead of his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is the president of SAD.

Out of the 117 seats, SAD will contest 94. Alliance partner BJP will put up candidates for the remaining 23. Today’s list was on expected lines and contained names of many important leaders of the party.

The first list contains 14 new faces. The candidates on the seats swapped between the SAD and the BJP, namely Amritsar (East), Garshankar, Batala and Ludhiana (West), have also reportedly been finalised, but have been withheld on the request of the BJP that does not want to foment trouble in the party ahead of the BJP’s Jalandhar rally tomorrow.

As a result of the switch, the BJP gets Ludhiana (West) and Amritsar (East) while SAD will contest from Garshankar and Batala.

The list released today includes the names of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon and 10 out of the 12 Akali ministers in the Parkash Singh Badal Cabinet. Education Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan’s name does not figure in the first list, but party sources confirmed that he was tipped to contest from Batala. Capt Balbir Singh Bath will be the only minister not to get re-nominated on any seat. Sukhbir Badal’s name also doesn’t figure in the first list.

The first list also includes the names of all three SAD parliamentary secretaries. In all, six women figure in the list of 48 which includes Kuldip Kaur Tohra, daughter of late Gurcharn Singh Tohra. Incidentally, she is the only person from the erstwhile Tohra faction that finds a mention in the list.

Ludhiana (West), which had been promised to Maheshinder Singh Grewal, has been given by SAD to BJP former president Rajinder Bhandari.

Twenty-four out of the 48 names released today are those of sitting party MLAs and nine ex-MLAs. In the list, five names are for reserved seats, while 43 are of the general category.