Congress releases second of 16 candidates for assembly polls

Chandigarh, Jan 18 (UNI) The Congress today released its second list of 16 nominees, in which the names of Finance Minister Surinder Singla and senior Congress leader Bir Davinder Singh do not figure.

Mr Singla is the sitting MLA from Bathinda, where the Congress nominee is yet to be named. There are indications that either Mr Singla or Mr Davinder will contest the Amritsar Parliamentary byelection. The Lok Sabha seat was vacated by BJP leader Navjot Singh Sidhu after his conviction in a 19-year old road-rage case.

Besides Bathinda, the other seats for which a decision has not been taken are Talwandi Sabo and Samana from where Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh's brother Malwinder Singh, senior Congress leader Brahm Mohindra and Punjab Youth Congress chief Vijay Inder Singh Singla are the aspirants.

The Congress had yesterday released a list of 98 candidates for the 117-member state assembly elections to be held on February 13. The first list contains the names of Capt Singh, his deputy Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Punjab Congress chief Shamsher Singh Dullo and 54 sitting MLAs, including all 16 ministers.

Prominent amongst those figuring in the second list are Mr Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa, brother of minister Pratap Bajwa, from Sri Hargobindpur and former All India Sikh Students Federation president Harminder Singh Gill from Patti, where he will take on sitting Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA Adesh Pratap Singh, son-in-law of SAD chief Prakash Singh Badal.

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