Elections 2019: Congress fields Bansal from Chandigarh, Preneet Kaur from Patiala, Navjot Kaur upset

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New Delhi, The Congress on Tuesday fielded former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal from the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat and Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh’s wife and former Union minister Preneet Kaur from Patiala for the upcoming parliamentary polls. This development may upset Navjot Kaur Sidhu who, of late. has been very hopeful of a ticket from Chandigarh.
Bansal had to quit as the railway minister in the UPA government after his nephew was found accepting a bribe for appointments in the Railways.

The Congress released a list 20 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls — six in Punjab, four in Gujarat, three in Jharkhand, two each in Odisha and Karnataka and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

In Punjab, it re-nominated sitting MPs Sunil Jakhar from Gurdaspur, Gurjeet Singh Aujla from Amritsar, Ravneet Singh Bittu from Ludhiana and Santosh Singh Chaudhary from Jalandhar.

Former Union minister Preneet Kaur exuded confidence that the Congress would win the Patiala seat in the Lok Sabha elections and alleged the opposition was harping on negativity as they did not have any positive agenda.

“The Aam Aadmi Party has disintegrated and is in disarray and the Akali Dal has too many factions. Moreover, a lot of development has taken place in Patiala city and we all have worked hard as a party in the city and district. So we are confident that the party will win from this seat,” she said.

She said the development would be her poll plank if she is fielded from Patiala constituency and lambasted the previous SAD-BJP regime for allegedly neglecting the district for ten years.

Replying to a question on accusations of the Akali Dal and the BJP that the Punjab government reneged on poll promises, the three-time MP said they were making these allegations as they do not any positive agenda.

“They do not have any positive agenda. That is why they have been harping on negativity,” she said.

Despite being cash-strapped, the state government carried out development work in the last two years, she said. “I think people understand that three years are still left (of this government) and in these years, it will make good on all the poll promises,” she said.

The Patiala seat, which has nine assembly segments, has always been regarded as a pocket borough of the Congress.

However in 2014, Preneet lost to AAP candidate Dharamvira Gandhi with a margin of over 20,000 votes. In 2004 and 2009, Preneet had defeated Akali Dal nominees Kanwaljeet Singh and Prem Singh Chandumajra respectively.

Suspended AAP MP Dharamvira Gandhi has floated his own party, the Nava Punjab Party, which is part of the Punjab Democratic Alliance.

The PDA has announced Gandhi as a candidate from Patiala, but the AAP is also yet to finalise its nominee.

Punjab will go to polls in a single phase on May 19.

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