Youth Congress polls: Sons, of ministers, MLAS in fray

PATIALA: Sons of Punjab ministers, Congress MLAS and relatives of prominent party leaders are among the 900 candidates in the fray for various posts of the Punjab Youth Congress, going to polls from November 28 to 30.

The polls are witnessing stiff competition this time as the party has given direct voting rights to nearly 2.7 lakh Youth Congress members.

Sons of cabinet ministers Brahm Mohindra, Balbir Singh Sidhu, chief minister’s adviser Tarsem Singh DC, MLAS Sunil Dutti, Hardial Singh Kamboj, Madan Lal Jalalpur, Fatehjang Singh Bajwa are in the race for various posts.

Also, relatives of cabinet minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s adviser BIS Chahal and a close confidant of Navjot Sidhu are in the fray.

As prominent Youth Congress faces have been getting party tickets for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections under the youth quota, politicians try their best to get their kin elected to the youth wing of the party.

The sons of most prominent politicians are in the race for the posts of state general secretary or district presidents as they fail to qualify for the post of state president for which the candidates must have contested the elections to the Lok Sabha or state assembly or civic bodies in the past.

7 IN RACE FOR STATE PRESIDENT’S POST

For the post of the state president, seven candidates are in the fray. Two of them Barinder Dhillon — a close confident of Capt Sandeep Singh Sandhu, secretay to CM — and Daman Bajwa had unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls in 2017 from Rupnagar and Dhuri, respectively.

Others in the fray are Iqbal Singh Grewal of Ludhiana, Dhanwant Singh Jimmy of Patiala, Jaswinder Jassi of Moga, Parvinder Lapran of Ludhiana, Vaneshwar Khera (Bunny) of Patiala.

Meanwhile, there is a stiff competition for the seven posts of general secretary, five of which are in the open category.

For these posts, Mohit Mohindra, son of Brahm Mohindra; Kanwarbir Singh Sidhu, son of Balbir Sidhu and Dilraj Sarkaria, nephew of Sukhbinder Sarkaria are among those in the fray.

Former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s close aide Mithu Madan; Captain Amarinder’s son Raninder Singh’s close confidant Gurjot Dhindsa; Gagandeep Jalalpur, son of MLA Madan Lal Jalalpur; Harpandeep Aujla, relative of MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla; and Baljeet Pahra, brother of MLA Barinderpal Singh Pahra are also in race for the post.

For the posts of district chiefs, Nirbhai Singh Milty Kamboj, son of MLA Hardial Singh Kamboj, is contesting from Patiala (rural); Aditya Datti, son of MLA Sunil Dutti from Amritsar (urban) and Dilsher Attari, son of CM’S adviser MLA Tarsem Singh DC from Amritsar (rural).

SONS OF MINISTERS BRAHM MOHINDRA, BALBIR SIDHU, CM’S ADVISER TARSEM DC, MLA SUNIL DUTTI AMONG THOSE IN RACE FOR VARIOUS POSTS