Congress in a huddle over former PM Manmohan Singh’s seat

A tug of war is going on over former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — rival camps in the Congress want him to represent Punjab, but in different houses of Parliament.

According to officials familiar with developments, Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Singh Bajwa has offered to give up his seat in exchange for a ticket from Gurdaspur, now represented by Sunil Jakhar. The Gurdaspur seat fell vacant after the death of actor Vinod Khanna of the BJP in 2017 and Jakhar, the state Congress chief, won it in a bypoll by a record margin.

Singh’s term in the Rajya Sabha is ending on June 14 this year. The term of another Congress Rajya MP, Santiuse Kujur, also elected from Assam, will end at the same time. However, with the BJP winning the state, the Congress does not have enough MLAs to get either of them re-elected.

Bajwa refused to deny or confirm whether he had made the offer to the high command. He had last month said he would stake a claim to the Gurdaspur seat, calling it the “karambhoomi” of his family.

He was earlier lobbying for a ticket for his wife, Charanjit Kaur, but pitched for himself after the Congress ruled out tickets for relatives of sitting MPs and MLAs.

The ripple effect of Bajwa’s offer is being felt in the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, now held by Gurjit Aujla. A rival camp wants Singh to be fielded from there. Early this month, in a meeting with Jakhar, minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria and Amritsar MLAs had proposed Singh’s name.

Singh is not keen to contest the Lok Sabha polls, a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.

Detractors of Jakhar are questioning why he should not move back to Ferozepur if the party is hopeful of winning all seats.

“It is for the former PM to decide if he wants to contest from Amritsar or not. As for Gurdaspur, I have already declared it to be my one and only choice,” Jakhar said.