Chandigarh: Ahead of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to announce the chief minister’s face in his virtual address from Ludhiana city in Punjab on Sunday, state president Navjot Sidhu on Saturday said the chief minister face should be the one who can win 60 seats in the 117-member Assembly.
This will be Gandhi’s second visit to the state in a week.
In his previous visit, Rahul Gandhi had assured workers that the party will decide CM candidate well ahead of the February 20 polling.
“This election is for the betterment of Punjab, this election is for the future of Punjab. Shri Rahul Gandhi ji will announce the next CM face of Punjab via a virtual rally from Ludhiana on Feb 6, 2022,” the Punjab Youth Congress said in a tweet.
A day ahead of the announcement, party state President Navjot Sidhu said the CM’s face will decide whether 60 contestants of the party become MLAs or not.
“The CM will be elected if there are 60 MLAs. Nobody is talking about 60 MLAs. Nobody is talking about the roadmap for a government to be formed,” Sidhu told the media in Amritsar.
With Gandhi’s assurance last week a power struggle is on between party state President Navjot Sidhu and Charanjit Singh Channi, the first Dalit Chief Minister of a state that is home to 32 per cent Scheduled Caste population, the country’s largest, to be the chief ministerial candidate.
Currently, voters have been getting tele-calls to give their opinion as to who should nominate the Congress as its chief ministerial candidate.
In the fray for 117 seats in Punjab are three prominent parties — the ruling Congress, the opposition Aam Aadmi Party and the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, and two alliances — the SAD-BSP and the BJP-Punjab Lok Congress.
Punjab will go to polls in a single phase on February 20 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.
(IANS)
