Punjab Cabinet minister Rana Gurjeet Singh’s son Rana Inder Partap Singh on Monday said he would contest as an independent candidate from the Sultantpur Lodhi assembly seat in Kapurthala district.
The minister’s son made the announcement after the Congress, in its first list of candidates for the Punjab assembly polls, gave the ticket to sitting MLA Navtej Singh Cheema from the Sultanpur Lodhi assembly constituency. The development comes a day after chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s brother Manohar Singh announced his intention to fight as an independent from the Bassi Pathana seat from where the sitting legislator Gurpreet Singh GP was given the ticket. “I will be contesting as an independent from Sultanpur Lodhi,” Rana Inder Partap Singh told news agency PTI over the phone.
He said he had applied for the party ticket but the Congress gave it to Navtej Cheema. Singh claimed that the block samiti members, the Zila Parishad chairman and the sarpanches of the area have extended support to him and asked him to contest from the Sultanpur Lodhi assembly seat. He claimed the security deposit of Cheema would be forfeited in the polls.
“There has been corruption in this assembly constituency. Cases have been registered against Congress workers including women,” he alleged. Singh further alleged that the development funds came for this constituency in the wake of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. “But a major part of these funds were misappropriated and people of this constituency were upset over it,” he alleged. Punjab Technical Education Minister Rana Gurjeet Singh is currently MLA from Kapurthala seat. The Congress has again fielded him from Kapurthala.
