Only one CM face in Punjab: No term sharing

New Delhi, Feb 05: The Congress is expected to announce its Chief Ministerial candidate for the Punjab Assembly elections on Sunday. While both Charanjit Singh Channi and Navjot Singh Siddhu are in the race, the party is not likely to make a comprise and have a term sharing arrangement.

While some had suggested that both Channi and Siddhu could be the CM face and a term sharing arrangement could be put in place, NDTV while quoting sources said that the party would have only one face as CM candidate.

Congress leader Sunil Jakhar had claimed that he got maximum votes as the Chief Minister face in a survey within the state of Punjab.

"I received the support of 42 MLAs (after Amarinder Singh quit as Punjab CM), present Punjab CM Channi received 2 MLAs' support, Sukhjinder Randhawa got 16 MLAs' support...and Navjot Singh Sidhu got 6 MLAs' support," claimed Sunil Jakhar.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has started discussions with party leaders and workers to pick its chief ministerial face in poll-bound Punjab, where it is seeking to retain power.

Over the past several weeks, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu have, directly or indirectly, made a case for themselves to be declared as the party's chief ministerial candidate.

The Congress is putting its weight behind Channi, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community. SCs and STs have been a traditional vote bank of the Congress, but they drifted away from the party following the emergence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and some other small groups.

The Congress is now seeking to consolidate the SC vote bank, which comprises almost one-third of Punjab's population, by choosing Channi to replace former chief minister Amarinder Singh.