Congress Arrives at Consensus on ‘Safe’ Seats, Musical Chairs Still on for Trickier Ones
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Even as the Congress high command seems to have thrashed out a consensus on candidates for 50 assembly constituencies for the forthcoming Punjab elections, it has a challenge on its hands while preparing the list for the remaining seats, many of which have multiple contenders.
The party in its internal meeting on late Wednesday night zeroed in on 50 candidates, the final announcement for which would be made by Sonia Gandhi soon. However, most of those on the list are the ones belonging to sitting MLAs who have found favour with both the Congress state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu’s faction as well as the one of chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
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“These are mostly the non-controversial seats where the sitting MLAs are either not facing any anti-incumbency or find themselves equidistant to both the lobbies within the party,” said a party leader. Though the finalisation of candidates for these seats may have come as good news for the party cadre, the trickiest part is still awaiting the top brass.
There are many seats where multiple aspirants belonging to different lobbies are giving a tough time to the party leadership. Sources said that there was no clarity on constituencies like Sunam, Mansa, Batala, Phagwara and Guru Harsahai where it is learnt that Sidhu and Channi have been pushing for their own candidates. “There are seats that are tough and could create problems for the party. On top of it, both the leaders are pushing for their own candidates. That would make the final selection tricky and could also trigger infighting and leaders leaving the party fold,” a senior leader admitted.
With the party high command also having decided on “one ticket per family”, many senior leaders who were hoping to get nominations for their kin are feeling disappointed. It has already had its impact with senior party leader from the Qadian constituency Fateh Singh Bajwa quitting and crossing over to the BJP. He and his brother Partap Bajwa were both staking claim for a ticket from the seat. “Interesting would be to see if the party sticks to this criterion in the case of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief, with reports that his wife is also keen on contesting,” a senior leader commented.
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Party sources said that the high command will hold more rounds of discussions before arriving at a consensus on the remaining seats. “Already there have been leaders crossing over to other parties; the central leadership will have to tread very cautiously,” commented a leader.
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