The Congress has largely gone for the tried and tested while shortlisting candidates for 86 of the 117 Assembly segments in Punjab whose names were announced on Saturday in the first list.

Of the 86 candidates, 60 are sitting MLAs, including two chief ministerial contenders — incumbent Charanjit Singh Channi and Pradesh Congress Committee chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Both Channi and Sidhu will contest from the seats they currently hold, Chamkaur Sahib and Amritsar (East) respectively.

The list includes all the 17 ministers. Only four sitting MLAs have been dropped by the Congress in an apparent bid not to upset the apple cart after having removed former chief minister Amarinder Singh less than six months ahead of the Assembly elections.

Among the new faces that the party has decided to bank on are Malvika Sood Sachar, sister of actor-philanthropist Sonu Sood, who had made headlines in 2020 for his efforts to help migrant workers stranded by the national lockdown reach their homes.

Malvika joined the Congress five days back in the presence of both Channi and Sidhu, who made a rare appearance together at a time the PCC chief has been going after his own government and both have been publicly nudging the party high command to announce the chief minister’s name ahead of the elections. Malvika will contest from her native place Moga. However, the announcement of her candidature resulted in sitting MLA Harjot Kamal leaving the party to join the BJP.

The other prominent new face is Sidhu Moosewala, an actor and rapper with a considerable fan following. He joined the Congress last month.

Plea to defer poll

Chief minister Channi has urged the Election Commission to postpone the February 14 elections by six days in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti on February 16. “On this occasion, a large number of Scheduled Caste devotees (about 20 lakh) from the state are likely to visit Banaras in Uttar Pradesh from February 10 to 16,” Channi wrote in a letter to chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra.