Jalandhar, April 13:Brushing aside the resentment of party leaders who had been denied ticket for the parliamentary elections, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday said with only 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state, it was not possible to accommodate all 177 aspirants for tickets, which were allotted by the Congress high command based on the criterion of winnability.
Tickets were allotted to balance youth with experience, the Chief Minister told mediapersons in an informal chat after welcoming former AAP leader Chandan Garewal into the party fold.Grewal, a prominent Balmiki leader, had quit the AAP in October 2017, just months after he unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls on the party ticket from Kartarpur.
Asked to comment on the rumours that some disgruntled Congress leaders were getting ready to form a separate Congress Taksali party, the Chief Minister said not all ticket applicants could be accommodated, and hoped better sense would prevail among such leaders and they would work for the success of the party.To a question about denial of ticket to senior Congress leader Mohinder Singh Kaypee, Amarinder said he had unsuccessfully contested on the party ticket three times, and even his wife had been given a chance but had lost.
The Chief Minister assured that the Jalandhar priest’s missing cash case would soon be solved and the culprits would be apprehended. An SIT had been formed to crack the case, he added.
