Lok sabha elections: 4-time city MP Bansal eyes Congress ticket

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, February 9

Debunking speculations, former Union minister and four-time Congress MP Pawan Kumar Bansal has shown interest in contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Chandigarh. He procured a form to apply for the ticket today.

“I have only shown interest in contesting the election. It is up to the party to decide about my candidature as many things are considered when a candidate is decided,” Bansal told Chandigarh Tribune.

There have also been efforts to field a joint candidate of Congress-AAP under the INDI alliance. “Nothing has been finalised yet. Talks are still on at the party level,” added the Congress veteran.

Bansal was picked as the Congress LS nominee in 2014 and 2019. He lost both to BJP’s Kirron Kher. In 2019, he bagged the Chandigarh LS nomination of the Congress despite former MP Navjot Singh Sidhu seeking the same for his wife Navjot Kaur.

It was in 1991 that he first time entered the Lok Sabha by winning the Chandigarh seat for the Congress. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from the UT constituency in 1999, 2004 and 2009.

So far, he is among the four party men who have taken forms to apply for the ticket. The other three are city Congress president HS Lucky, city Youth Congress president Manoj Lubana and former Youth Congress president Harmail Kesari.

Kesari today even applied for his candidature. “I have full faith in Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge that this time the party will give the Chandigarh ticket only to a young man,” said Kesari after submitting his form today.

As per procedure, candidates will submit forms at the party’s office in the city from where the recommendations of candidates by the local party will be sent to the screening committee that will further send it to the party high command for the final decision.