Gurdaspur bypoll: Congress nominates Punjab unit chief Sunil Jakhar after several meetings

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday nominated its Punjab unit chief Sunil Jakhar as the party candidate for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-election to be held on 11 October. [caption id=“attachment_3961395” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The last date for filing of nominations is 22 September after the Election Commission issued the notification on 15 September. “Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the name of Sunil Jakhar as party candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha by-election from Gurdaspur Parliamentary constituency in Punjab,” AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said in a statement. The by-election has been necessitated due to the death of BJP MP Vinod Khanna some time ago. Jakhar is the Punjab Congress chief and a close confidant of Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. A numbe of MLAs from Gurdaspur area had backed his candidature and so had Amarinder Singh. He had lost the last assembly election held earlier this year. The Congress chief has held several rounds of meeting with senior Punjab leaders before finalising the candidate. Gandhi met Amarinder Singh, Jakhar and Pratap Singh Bajwa earlier. Ensuring victory for the party is important as this is the first election after the Amarinder Singh-led Congres government came to power earlier this year. Wary that factionalism within the party could affect the party’s prospects, the Congress leadership decided on Jakha after considering winnability as the only factor.