Congress is likely to announce their first list of candidates in the upcoming days seeing as BJP and AAP have already made their candidates official. The AICC-appointed screening committee for Punjab will meet tomorrow to finalise candidates before sending it to the central election committee for final approval. In the first list, former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi is likely to be Congress’ Candidate for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha Constituency, despite opposition from former Jalandhar MP Santokh Singh Choudhary’s family.
As per sources, Santokh Singh Choudhary’s son, Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary was against contesting Channi in Jalandhar. Vikramjit Chaudhary is currently the MLA from the Phillaur Constituency. Channi is a very popular face among the Dalit community, on whom he relies heavily for a majority of his votes. Channi is also quite popular among the Dera Sri Ravidass community, which makes him a strong presence in Jalandhar.
Channi reportedly has full support of Jalandhar constituency MLAs, such as Sukhwinder Kotli from Adampur Constituency and Jalandhar Cantt. MLA Pargat Singh among others.