Congress fields spouses of MPs- Warring, Randhawa for Punjab bypolls

The Congress released its candidate list on Tuesday for the November 13 bypolls to four assembly seats in Punjab, fielding Ludhiana MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring's wife Amrita Warring from Gidderbaha and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa's wife Jatinder Kaur from Dera Baba Nanak.

The bypolls to the Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala seats were necessitated after the sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha.

The party fielded Amrita Warring from the Gidderbaha assembly segment. Her husband Raja Warring had won the seat in 2012, 2017 and 2022.

The seat fell vacant after sitting MLA Raja Warring won the Lok Sabha election from Ludhiana this year.

Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was the Dera Baba Nanak MLA when he won the parliamentary election from Gurdaspur and vacated the assembly seat.

The Congress has fielded his wife Jatinder Kaur from the seat.

Sukhjinder Randhawa had won the Dera Baba Nanak assembly seat in 2002, 2012, 2017 and 2022.

The Congress fielded Kuldeep Singh Dhillon from the Barnala assembly segment. Dhillon is the party's district president of Barnala.

This seat fell vacant after Gurmeet Singh Hayer, who was the sitting MLA from AAP, won the general election from the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency.

The Congress named Ranjit Kumar as its candidate for the Chabbewal (SC) seat. Kumar had unsuccessfully contested the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat on a BSP ticket.

The Chabbewal bypoll was necessitated after Raj Kumar Chabbewal, who was a Congress MLA but later joined AAP, was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur.

The polling in these assembly segments will be held on November 13 and the counting of votes will take place on November 23.

The last date for filing nominations is October 25 and the scrutiny of nomination papers will be conducted on October 28, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is October 30.