Rebels giving sleepless nights to Congress, SAD candidates

Chandigarh, Feb 1 (UNI) Warnings and expulsions notwithstanding, several rebels in the fray for Assembly elections in Punjab are giving sleepless nights to the official candidates of both the Congress and the SAD.

In the last Assembly polls in the state, rebel candidates made a major dent to the prospects of the SAD candidates thus helping the Opposition Congress wrest power from its traditonal rival in the state.

The ruling Congress' candidates are face to face with their own party's rebels in about a dozen constituencies of the 117 it is contesting.

While alloting tickets, the SAD, which is contesing 94 of the 117 seats, ensured tickets to all those party rebels who in the last polls had won as independents or had finished second.

The third major party, the BJP an electoral ally of SAD, may not be facing the problem of rebel nominees but in a few of the 23 constituencies that it is contesting, there has been a revolt among the party cadre.

The Bharatiya Jan Shakti (BJS) of Uma Bharti may make a marginal dent in the BJP votes in two or three segments, while on the other hand the BSP may affect the ruling Congress in certain constituencies of the Doaba belt.

The SAD (Amritsar), which had garnered five per cent of the votes polled in the last elections, would affect prospects of the candidates of the SAD led by Mr Parkash Singh Badal.

The main assembly segments in which the the Congress is facing rebels are ---Amritsar Central, Amritsar North, Jalandhar Cantt, Nabha, Sham Churasi, Khadoor Sahib, Anandpur Sahib, Chamkaur Sahib, Mansa, Sunam and Amloh. On the other hand the major problem areas for SAD would be Ajnala, Payal, Lehra Gagga, Muktsar, Dhuri and Mahilpur.

In Amritsar Central, Arun Kumar Pappal, a former councillor, could make the going tough for Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Prof Darbari Lal, who is the sitting MLA. In 1997 Pappal had contested as an independent and had secured around 7,500 votes that ultimately led to the defeat of Prof Darbari Lal at the hands of Mrs Laxmi Kanta Chawla of the BJP.

In Amritsar North, the expelled District Congress (Urban) president Joginder Pal Dhingra will affect the chances of sitting Congress MLA Jugal Kishore Sharma. The entry of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu as the BJP candidate for the Amritsar Parlimentary by-election has made matters worse for the Congress candidate, as the BJP candidate from Amritsar North is Sunil Joshi, a close friend of Sidhu.

In Jalandhar Cantt, Anil Dutta, a one time close associate of Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and a former member of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), has made the going tough for Cabinet minister Mrs Gurkanwal Kaur, daughter of former chief minister Beant Singh.

Mr Dutta being a local is a strong candidate and has rendered the contest triangular from this traditional Congress stronghold which had returned Mr Beant Singh in 1992.

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