The Punjab Lok Congress Party (PLC) on Saturday changed the candidature from the Nakodar seat from where former Indian hockey team captain Ajit Pal Singh was nominated as it announced another list of candidates for the next month’s assembly polls.
Besides, four candidates of the former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh-led PLC will now fight the polls on the BJP symbol, a Punjab BJP leader said on Saturday.
A few days back, the PLC had announced a list of 22 candidates, nominating ex-captain of Indian hockey team Ajit Pal Singh from Nakodar.
The 74-year-old Ajit Pal Singh was one of the prominent faces of the PLC for the February 20 polls.
In a new list announced on Saturday, the PLC has replaced the former Indian hockey captain with Shammi Kumar Kalyan from Nakodar.
When contacted, Ajit Pal Singh said his name could not be enrolled in the voting list in Punjab.
He said by the time he applied for the change of his voting place, the Election Commission of India had stopped the process for the same.
He further said he has a voting right in Delhi as he is presently a resident of the national capital.
Four PLC candidates will now fight the polls on the BJP symbol.
The BJP and the PLC mutually decided this after these candidates expressed their desire to fight on the saffron party’s symbol, the BJP leader said.
Punjab BJP general secretary Jeevan Gupta said the four PLC candidates are Prem Mittal from Atam Nagar, Jagmohan Sharma from Ludhiana East, Kamal Saini from Kharar and Raj Nambardar from Bathinda Urban.
Four of these are urban seats.
Meanwhile, the PLC announced Jaskaran Singh Sandhu as a candidate from Patti, Jagdish Kumar from Adampur, Karanveer Singh from Malout, Dargesh Kumar from Kotkapura, Jiwan Dass from Mansa and Savera Singh from Bathinda Rural.
The BJP is fighting the Punjab assembly polls in alliance with the PLC and the Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt).
The BJP will fight on 65 seats, the PLC on 37 and the SAD (Sanyukt) on 15.
