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As race for tickets picks steam, five Punjab Congress MPs meet Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi
The five Punjab Congress MPs who met Sonia Gandhi include Gurjit Singh Aujla (Amritsar), Manish Tewari (Anandpur Sahib), Amar Singh (Fatehgarh Sahib), Jasbir Singh Dimpa (Khadoor Sahib) and Mohammad Sadiq (Faridkot).
Following the unceremonious exits of Members of Parliament (MPs) Ravneet Singh Bittu (Ludhiana) and Preneet Kaur (Patiala) from Congress, the grand old party’s remaining five MPs met party leader Sonia Gandhi at her residence in New Delhi on Wednesday in an apparent bid to prove their loyalty and stake claim over party tickets.
The five MPs include Gurjit Singh Aujla (Amritsar), Manish Tewari (Anandpur Sahib), Amar Singh (Fatehgarh Sahib), Jasbir Singh Dimpa (Khadoor Sahib) and Mohammad Sadiq (Faridkot).
Aujla said they arrived in New Delhi to seek Sonia Gandhi’s blessings and discussed the political scenario of Punjab.
“I also raised the issues concerning Amritsar. I have full hope that if I get the Lok Sabha seat from Amritsar, I will win it and give it to Congress. I assured Mrs Gandhi that after the victory, I will once again come to seek her blessings.”
Out of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, Congress had won eight seats in the 2019 elections.
The party lost one seat after the demise of its Jalandhar MP Santokh Singh Choudhary. In the bypolls that ensued, the Jalandhar seat went to Aam Aadmi Party’s Sushil Kumar Rinku. The Congress suffered more jolts as Patiala Preneet Kaur distanced herself from the party over her husband, Captain Amarinder’s removal as Punjab CM, and eventually joined BJP last month. Ludhiana MP Bittu also switched loyalties to the saffron party in March.
