Gurdaspur MLAs lobbying hard

pathankot: hectic lobbying is on for the ministerial berths in the congress government in punjab. while all the newly elected congress legislators are already in chandigarh to attend the congress legislative party (clp) meeting on tuesday, their supporters back home are projecting them as “hot favourite� of amarinder singh, who is likely to be elected as the chief minister by the clp.having adorned the chair of finance minister for record five terms, the supporters of kewal krishan, who wrested mukerian seat, are hopeful that given his vast experience, the vice-president of the punjab pradesh congress committee would again get the finance ministry and number two position in the cabinet. “given his experience as finance minister in the past, there will be no alternative for amarinder than to give the finance portfolio to dr saheb,� said js randhawa, a kewal krishan loyalist. while there were as many as five ministers from gurdaspur district in the badal led sad-bjp government, the congress lobbies here are vying with each other for inclusion of their respective mlas in the new cabinet, it is learnt. ‘‘given that pathankot constituency represents the biggest urban centre in the district, amarinder singh cannot ignore ashok sharma, said panna lal bhatia, congress mc from pathankot. a protege of ashwini kumar, who had been instrumental in getting him the congress ticket for the constituency, ashok kumar was rushed “special party funds� at the eleventh hour by the ppcc chief, according to bhatia. the supporters of ‘‘most senior and respected� congress leader khushal behl, who won gurdaspur seat, term him as the for a cabinet berth.the veteran leader is understood to be having support of both sukhbans kaur bhinder and ashwini kumar. another strong contender for the cabinet berth is raghunath sahai puri, who won sujanpur constituency by record 18,244 votes. he is understood to be a close associate of both amarinder singh an sukhbans kaur bhinder. puri, who is credited with reorganising the gurdaspur district unit of the congress as the dcc president and organising a “massive state level pre-poll rally in gurdaspur’’ is also considered instrumental in landslide victory of the party in gurdaspur. veteran congress leader and former ppcc chief santokh singh randhawa, who has also been camping in chandigarh, has been actively lobbying for a ministerial berth for his son, sukhjinder randhawa, who won fateh garh churian. ashwini sekhri, who won the batala seat by defeating the bjp strongman jagdish raj sahni of the bjp, is being seen as a potential minister due to his strong ties with raghunandan lal bhatia, congress mp and former minister. last but not the least, partap singh bajwa, who wrested kahnuwan, would be “natural choice� for amarinder. known for his close ties with amarinder and his vast experience in having been part of beant, brar and bhattal cabinets, his supporters claim while anybody else may not get a cabinet berth, he sure will.