Rahul Gandhi is about to start his Punjab tour from January 27 and is trying his bestto save his Punjab stronghold again. In the 2017 Assembly elections, Congresswon 19 seats out of 23 from Doaba. The biggest challenge for Rahul Gandhi is toprotect his hold in Doaba as the party is facing internal dispute among themembers.
The Doabaregion played a very important role in the 2017 win of Congress in Punjab. Congressparty had a good hold on Punjab in the last elections. Doaba region has fourcities in it- Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala.
Congressis facing difficulty in Doaba this time because the candidates from the regionare having a dispute because of the tickets. From the situations arising for Congress,it can be possible that half of the seats could be in danger due to theinternal dispute.
The maindispute is of Ranu Gurjit Singh, who is Congress Candidate from Kapurthala. He haswon the seat three times for the congress party. The matter started whencongress refused to give the ticket to Rana's son Rana Inder Partap Singh whois now fighting as an Independent candidate from Sultanpur Lodhi. The refusalwas a part of the party's policy to not give tickets to more than one member ofa family.
RanaGurjit started doing campaigning for his son in Sultanpur Lodhi and from thepast two months, the Rana family is doing efforts for making son Inder Partapactive in the area. Congress sitting MLA Tej Singh Cheema is contesting fromSultanpur Lodhi but as the party's inside minister is supporting his son who isfighting as an independent candidate, the Party can be facing trouble.
From theentire dispute, things don't look good for the congress party. If things go thesame way, the party can face a huge loss in the upcoming elections.
On theother hand, Cheema says Party supporters are with him and he will win again. Comingin his support sitting MLA Avtar Singh Jr Bawa Henry from Jalandhar North,Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal from Phagwara and Sukhpal Singh Khaira from Bhulath,joined Cheema in writing a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi regardingRana's expulsion.
Becauseof the dispute, Congress may face a risk for the 6 seats. Apart from 5 seats,Congress may also risk the seats from Jalandhar west and Shahkot too.
FromJalandhar west, Sushil Rinku candidate of the Congress party will be facing MahinderBhagat from BJP. He belongs to the Bhagat community. AAP candidate ShetalAnurag is also in the race. Akali Dal is not fighting from this area. Rinku issaid to be closely associated with Rana as a result of which he is facing opposition frominside the party and the insiders are trying to let him defeat in the elections.
FromShahkot, Sitting MLA Hardev Singh Ladi will be contesting in the elections. He isalso close with Rana Gurjit and facing opposition from the party. Rana and hisclose ones are facing hurdles from the insiders.
Congresscandidate and sitting MLA Avtar Singh Jr Bawa Henry from Jalandhar North isfacing a challenge from AAP candidate Dinesh Dhal who rebels Punjab Congressand joined AAP. Dinesh Dhal is close with Congress Rana Gurjit. BJP candidateKD Bhandari was already MLA from that area. From the entire dispute, the othersParties might get the advantage in winning the seat.
Anothersupporter of Cheema in the dispute, Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, the sitting MLAfrom Phagwara will be fighting against AAP candidate Joginder Mann who is saidto be close to Rana Gurjit. The fight will be interesting in all the areas andthe confusion of the party internals can give an advantage to other partiesduring the elections. The parties areclosely observing whether Congress will be able to stop the internal dispute inthe party or it will affect them in the upcoming elections.