As many as 31 candidates, including Raninder Singh of Congress who is son of former chief minister Amarinder Singh and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), on Friday filed their nomination papers for the first phase of polling for four parliament seats of Punjab to be held on May 7.
While Raninder Singh filed his papers from the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, his wife Rishma Kaur filed her papers from the same seat as a covering candidate of her husband. SAD's Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa filed his nominations from his traditional Sangrur seat, Harjit Kaur filed her papers as a covering candidate for Dhindsa, an election office spokesman said in Chandigarh.
The total candidates who have filed their nominations from four seats of Bathinda, Patiala, Sangrur and Ferozepur going to polls in the first phase has gone up by 74 on the penultimate day of filing of nomination papers.