Chandigarh: Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi's brother Dr Manohar Singh Channi on Sunday announced that he shall contest the upcoming assembly polls in Punjab as an independent contestant. The announcement came after the release of Congress' first list of 86 candidates from Punjab, which did not include Manohar Singh's name in it.
While announcing this decision, he said that he was hoping that Congress will give him a ticket from the Bassi Pathana seat in Punjab. However, the party has given that ticket to MLA Gurpreet Singh GP as unveiled in the first list of candidates released on Friday.
"Congress has refused to give me a ticket. I have therefore decided to contest these elections as an independent candidate as I did in the 2017 elections. I had won the elections back then and I am confident that I shall be able to achieve that in the upcoming polls also," he said during the announcement. He also said that he has taken the decision of contesting independently after meeting several councillors, village sarpanch and panch who asked him to fight the polls.
Singh dubbed the decision of the Congress giving ticket to Gurpreet Singh GP as an injustice to the people of the constituency and alleged that the sitting legislator was incapable and ineffective. Singh had resigned as a senior medical officer from Kharar civil hospital, as he was hoping to get the ticket for the Bassi Pathana seat.
On the 'one family-one ticket' formula of the Congress for the upcoming assembly polls, Channi said the party fielded Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary, who is the son of Jalandhar MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary, from Phillaur seat. Similarly, Fatehgarh Sahib MP Amar Singh's son Kamil Amar Singh has been given the ticket from the Raikot seat, he said.
Last year, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu had inaugurated the poll office of Gurpreet Singh GP at Bassi Pathana constituency. Voting for Punjab's 117 assembly seats will be held on February 14 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.
READ: Congress releases first list of candidates for Punjab polls; Malvika Sood gets Moga seat
