Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday announced the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) candidates from 22 constituencies for the February 20 polls to the state Assembly.
PLC has currently got 37 of the 117 seats in the state as part of its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), with discussions still in progress on possibly another five seats for the party.
Of the 37 seats in the PLC kitty, the maximum of 26 is from the Malwa region.
The PLC’s share in seat allocation for the Majha region currently stands at seven, while the Doaba region accounts for four seats.
Releasing the first list of nominees, the PLC leader said all these candidates have strong political credentials and are well-known faces in their respective constituencies. There is one woman on this first list. Farzana Alam Khan, a former SAD MLA will contest from Malerkotla in the Malwa region.
Besides Amarinder Singh, who had on Saturday itself announced his decision to fight from his home constituency of Patiala Urban, there are eight other Jat Sikhs in the first list. Four of the candidates belong to the SC community, three to the OBC community, while five are Hindu faces (three Pandits and two Aggarwals).
In addition to Captain Amarinder and Farzana Alam, another key candidate from the Malwa region is the current Mayor of MC Patiala, Sanjeev Sharma who was president of District Youth Congress for a number of years. Sharma will contest the Patiala Rural seat.