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Friday, Jun 18, 2004

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Congress fields Bhinder for Rajya Sabha

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, JUNE 17. The Congress party today put to rest all speculation when it granted nomination to senior party leader and former Union Minister, Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, to contest the election for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats in Punjab on June 28. The seat was vacated after the death of the veteran Akali leader, G.S. Tohra, who passed away within a few weeks of his being elected to the Upper House.

Ms. Bhinder, who has represented the border constituency of Gurdaspur, for a record five times, lost to actor turned politician, Vinod Khanna, for the third time in a row during the recent Lok Sabha elections.

Ms. Bhinder filed her nomination papers at the office of the Secretary of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, N.S. Mavi, this morning. She was accompanied by some of her supporters. Unlike yesterday, when party general secretary, Ambika Soni, filed her papers, the Chief Minister, his Ministerial colleagues and party leadership, were conspicuous by their absence today.

The nomination of Ms. Bhinder put to rest the speculations that either the Deputy Chief Minister, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal or the PCC president, H.S. Hanspal, could be absorbed in the Upper House to deal with dissidence and infuse fresh spirit in the party. Interestingly, Ms Bhinder had been projected as the replacement for Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, when the dissidents had camped in Delhi in December last to air their grievances and discontent.

It is also worth mentioning that with Ms Bhinder's nomination, the Congress leadership had sent a major signal to the border areas of Punjab, while it may face criticism of adjusting defeated candidates. Earlier, it had appointed R.L. Bhatia and Balram Jakhar as Governors. While Mr. Bhatia lost the Amritsar seat, Mr. Jakhar who contested unsuccessfully from Rajasthan hailed from the border district of Ferozepur.

If Ms. Bhinder makes it to Rajya Sabha, Gurdaspur would be represented by two MPs. Ashwani Kumar, who is already a member of the Rajya Sabha, belongs to the same district. Interestingly, Hoshiarpur would also create a record of sorts, when it would have four MPs, following Ms Soni's elections to Rajaya Sabha. In the Lok Sabha, the seat is represented by Avinash Rai Khanna of the BJP, while Varinder Singh Bajwa and Pran Sabharwal, have already been elected to the Rajya Sabha.

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