CHANDIGARH: The ruling Congress in Punjab is in a dilemma about finding Hindu faces to be fielded from at least three Lok Sabha seats in the state out of the total thirteen constituencies.
Sources in the party are of the view that the Hindu community in the state is unhappy with the Congress as the party has got the "radical tinge over sacrilege issue" over which it "played politics" since last year.
Also, the party has been unable to cash their disenchantment with BJP over demonetisation and goods and services tax (GST) issue. The other worry for the state Congress leadership is that the saffron party is now pitching itself on nationalism after retaliatory airstrikes at Balakot in Pakistan.
While the name of Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar seems certain from Gurdaspur, the party is to take a call on Ferozepur, Anandpur Sahib and Sangrur seats.
Sources said that also the party is thinking about fielding former union minister and former MP from Chandigarh Pawan Kumar Bansal from Sangrur Lok Sabha seat as it does not have a strong contender from there. As the party wants a strong Hindu face from here which it does not have and also Bansal’s ancestral place is Tapa Mandi in Sangrur so he has a connect from here.
The other name doing the rounds is of state PWD minister and former MP from Sangrur Vijay Inder Singla, but he is not keen to contest and is learnt to have proposed the name of his wife.
Only if the party does not have an alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) then Bansal or Singla might be fielded from Sangrur. However, in case of an alliance patch-up at the national level, then the sitting MP from Sangrur and President of Punjab AAP Bhagwant Mann will be the candidate.
While from Ferozepur, former Punjab Youth Congress leader Raminder Awla's name is in the reckoning, everything depends on whom the SAD fields from this seat. The scenario is likely to change, if Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is fielded from here.
Also, Sher Singh Ghubaya, the sitting MP from here who recently switched sides to Congress from Akali Dal is already flexing his political muscle by launching his campaign. He hails from the Rai Sikh community, which holds sway over the seat.
In 2014 parliamentary elections, the party had fielded three Hindus, Ambika Soni from Anandpur Sahib, Sunil Jakhar from Ferozepur and Vijay Inder Singla from Sangrur but all of them lost.