Congress releases list of 79 candidates

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 5 

Just an evening before the last day of the filing of the nomination papers, the Congress today released the names of 79 candidates for the 80-ward MC polls, keeping ward no. 45 pending. 

Interestingly, while the party has claimed to have followed a policy of one family-one ticket rule, it deviated slightly from it making an exception. The Congress repeated ticket to former Leader of Opposition Jagdish Raj Raja and his wife Anita from ward numbers 48 and 49, respectively. Both were councillors from adjoining wards in the last House. 

The party, however, rejected couple claims of other candidates choosing two women in the new House which will have 50 per cent reservation. The women candidates from among the couple claimants include last time councillors Aruna Arora and Neerja Jain from wards 27 and 23 respectively. Last time, councillor Amardeep Kaur’s husband Major Singh is party candidate from ward 40. Both had filed claims with the party.

Other prominent women to make it in the Congress list are Sunita Rinku, wife of MLA Sushil Rinku, and Uma Beri, wife of MLA Rajinder Beri, from wards 42 and 19, respectively. District Mahila Congress chief Jasleen Kaur Sethi too has been picked from general ward 20.  

Also, the party has dropped tickets to two of its sitting members Dr. Pradeep and Baldev Raj from Jalandhar West area due to alleged indiscipline, the PPCC press release read, adding that they had revolted against the party earlier and had even been suspended for gross misconduct.

Interestingly, while the party has declared that it has not granted tickets to those who left the party in 2012 and 2014, in a move that has further perturbed the workers in the city, the Congress has given preference to those who had left other parties and had joined Congress fold recently. 

While accusing Congress MLAs of favouritism, Congress leader Sanjay Sehgal said that some MLAs had even got tickets for those people who were not even primary members of the party. 

“The city is going to witness a friendly match in many wards including ward number 66. The party MLA has fielded a weak candidate from the ward to ensure easy win for BJP candidate Ram Gopal Gupta who helped him in the assembly election,” alleged Sehgal. 

These decisions were taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Sunil Jakhar was present at the meeting, held in New Delhi, along with AICC secretary and Punjab in-charge Asha Kumari and AICC secretary Harish Chaudhary.

53 filed nominations, only 2 from Congress 

As many as 53 nomination papers were filed by various candidates today for the elections of Municipal Corporation Jalandhar (MCJ) and for Municipal Committees of Bhogpur and Goraya besides Nagar Panchayats of Nurmahal and Shahkot.

While 28 candidates filed their papers for the elections of Municipal Corporation Jalandhar whereas two candidates filed their papers for election of Municipal Committee Bhogpur. Likewise, 20 candidates filed their nomination papers for the election of Municipal Committee Goraya, whereas three candidates filed their nominations for polls of Nagar Panchayat Bilga. 

The District Administrative Complex was today abuzz with a sea of party workers who kept on thronging the complex since morning along with their candidates to file his nomination. Dancing to the dhol beats, some women supporters even performed giddha at the venue to pep up the election atmosphere. Also, some distributed sweets to mark the  beginning. 

Amongst the prominent candidates who filed their nominations today was Akali Dal candidate Jaspal kaur along with her husband and former Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia, former independent councillor Raminder Kaur Dhindsa from ward number 15, former Deputy Mayor Parvesh Tangri from ward number 36. Also, former councillor today filed independent nomination for his daughter Neerja from ward number 57 and his daughter in law Ramandeep Bali from ward number 55. 

Interestingly, while the Congress released its official list in late evening, Congress’s former councillor Balraj Thakur filed his nomination in the morning itself. When asked, Thakur said he did so after getting an official confirmation from the party high command. 

Former councillor Jassal too filed his nomination from ward number 80. The major attraction in today’s nomination was found to be of young BJP candidate Kiran Jagota from ward number 19, who would contest election against Congress MLA Rajinder Beri’s wife Uma Beri. 

Kiran is one amongst the youngest of candidates who are in the poll fray. She is the daughter of BJP’s Aadati cell leader Ajay Jagota. 

Dhindsa finally gets to contest on SAD symbol

The wife of SAD leader Iqbal Singh, Raminder Kaur Dhindsa, had been contesting and winning as independent councillor earlier as the ward which she hails from was in BJP kitty. After changes in the ward sharing between the alliance partners today after recent delimitation, she finally managed to get picked as SAD candidate from ward 15. Dhindsa is a loyalist of ex-MLA Sarabjit Makkar. He had to be expelled and rejoined in the party twice owing to his wife’s elections.