Sidhu, Amarinder among 1040 candidates who filed papers in Pb

Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, state Congress chief Amarinder Singh and AAP leader Bhagwant Mann were among the 1040 candidates who filed their papers today on the last day of filing of nominations for the February 4 Assembly polls in Punjab.
With today's nominations, the total number of candidates to file their nominations has risen to 1941.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, 1078 candidates were in the fray for the 117-member House.
While Sidhu filed his papers on Congress ticket from Amritsar East seat, Mann submitted his nomination from Jalalabad seat on Aam Aadmi Party ticket, an election office spokesman said here.

Amarinder filed his nomination papers from Lambi seat where he will take on Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) from his pocket borough.
Also in fray from Lambi is former Delhi legislator and AAP leader Jarnail Singh.

Yesterday, Amarinder has filed his papers from his traditional bastion Patiala urban seat.
Sidhu, a former BJP MP who joined Congress only two days back, was accompanied by his wife Navjot Kaur and other Congress leaders at the time of filing of his papers.
He is pitted against Amritsar BJP district chief Rajesh Kumar Honey.
Congress has fielded its young turk and MP Ravneet

Bittu, grandson of late Chief Minister Beant Singh from Jalalabad. He also filed his papers from Jalalabad today.
Punjab is set to witness high octane electoral battle from Lambi and Jalalabad Assembly seats.
Ten candidates filed their papers for the by-polls to Amritsar Lok Sabha seat. Till yesterday five candidates had filed their papers. With today's nominations the total number of candidates in fray for Amritsar Lok Sabha seat has risen to 15.
Congress candidate Gurjit Singh Aujla and BJP Candidate Rajindermohan Singh Chhina, AAP candidate Upkar Singh SAndhu, Bahujan Samaj Party candidate (Ambedkar) Shankar Singh, Gurinder Singh of Apna Punjab Party, Gulzar Singh from Shiromani Lok Dal Party have filed their nomination papers for Amritsar Lok Sabha seat with pumps and show while carrying sizeable crowd of their supporters.

Som Parkash Kainth, the BJP candidate from Phagwara (reserve) assembly constituency, also filed his papers for Assembly polls.
Sahil Kainth, son of Som Parkash filed his nomination as his covering candidate.
Som Parkash represents Phagwara and is re-contesting from the seat.
Meanwhile, Jaswinder Singh Aheer, the SAD (Amritsar) candidate from Phagwara, today could not file his nomination as he allegedly reached late in the office of SDM cum RO.
But he, alongwith Rajinder Singh Fauji, state Executive member of SAD (Amritsar) and party activist Resham Singh Pappi, alleged foul play, claiming that they had reached in time but the RO discriminated against them by declining to entertain the nomination.

But SDM cum RO Balbir Raj Singh strongly denied the allegation.
Assembly polls and by-poll to Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in Punjab will be held on February 4.
While scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on January 19, the withdrawal of candidature can be done till January 21.
The counting of votes will take place on March 11.
Punjab will witness a three-way fight between the SAD, AAP and Congress in all 117 seats.
While the Congress is going it alone on all seats, ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and its ally BJP will contest on 94 and 23 seats respectively.

A new entrant to Punjab Assembly elections, AAP has fielded candidates for 110 seats and its ally LIP on seven.
Other political outfits in the fray include BSP, Apna Punjab Party (APP), the Left comprising CPI and CPI(M), and SAD-Amritsar.