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| Is Cong going to field Lal Singh on Udhampur seat? | | Jealous of his dominating style, some Jammu-based leaders oppose party’s move | |  Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 3: A day after BJP announced to repeat its sitting Lok Sabha members from two seats of Jammu province, unconfirmed reports suggest that Congress is going to field Choudhary Lal Singh on the prestigious Udhampur-Doda segment.
Sources in the Congress said that Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Vikar Rasool Wani is working assiduously to manage the party’s mandate for Choudhary Lal Singh in Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat to give a tough fight to the BJP’s strong candidate and two-time Lok Sabha member Dr. Jitendra Singh.
As of now, the Udhampur-Doda and Jammu-Reasi Parliamentary segments appear to be a cakewalk for the BJP keeping in view the performance of both the sitting MPs and the prevailing wave of the party on these two Lok Sabha seats.
Sources said that Vikar Rasool Wani has given a clear message to the Choudhary Lal Singh is the only leader in the Kathua-Udhampur-Doda belt who has the potential to give a tough fight to BJP on this seat.
“Although panels of potential candidates have been forwarded to the central leadership, Wani and some other leaders have asked the high command to reconsider the name of Lal Singh”, sources said and added that by fielding Choudhary Lal Singh, Wani also wanted to give a message to his former political mentor Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Sources said that some leaders, who want to scuttle the move of Choudhary Lal Singh’s rejoining the Congress, have raised the issue of the infamous Rasana case in which Singh had demanded a CBI probe.
“Interestingly, none of the Muslim leaders in the Congress has opposed the candidature of the Choudhary Lal Singh, it was some Hindu leaders who are raking up the Rasana incident to sabotage this move”, a source in the Congress said, adding, “there is feeling JKPCC chief Vikar Rasool Wani is reportedly working to manage the party’s mandate for Choudhary Lal Singh.
Singh as Cong candidate can give a tough fight to the BJP’s two-time Lok Sabha Member Dr Jitendra Singh.
As of now, the Udhampur-Doda and Jammu-Reasi Parliamentary seats appear to be a cakewalk for the BJP.
Wani believes that Lal Singh is the only leader in the Kathua-Udhampur-Doda belt who has the potential to give a tough fight to BJP on this seat.
As reported earlier by this newspaper, some Congress leaders have started a campaign to bring Choudhary Lal Singh back into the party before the Lok Sabha elections.
Some Congress leaders are unanimous in bringing Choudhary Lal Singh back into the party because they realized that Singh has emerged as a strong leader after he was arrested by the ED.
“Lal Singh’s rejoining the party, especially in the present scenario, would prove beneficial for the Congress party in Jammu province during the Lok Sabha elections”, a senior Congress leader had told The Early Times in December this year.
Wishing anonymity, the same leader said that Lal Singh’s rejoining would enhance the prospects of the Congress to effectively face the challenges of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
Founder of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP) Choudhary Lal Singh is a two-time Lok Sabha member and three-time MLA.
Singh switched from Congress to the BJP in 2014 and was also a minister in the previous PDP-BJP government, which collapsed in June 2018.
Singh had been a two-time Lok Sabha member from Udhampur-Kathua parliamentary constituency and a three-time MLA from Basohli.
Last time, he was elected MLA during the 2014 assembly elections as a BJP nominee after he had quit the Congress and joined the Saffron Brigade. He was later inducted as a cabinet minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government.
Later, he floated his own party, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan, and even contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from both the Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur-Kathua constituencies, but lost in both places. |
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