Congress announces candidates for Punjab bypolls

 The Congress on Monday announced candidates for bypolls in four Assembly constituencies of Punjab.

It has fielded Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal from Phagwara (Scheduled Caste) seat, Indu Bala from Mukerian, Sandeep Singh Sandhu from Dhaka and Raminder Awla from the Jalalabad seat.

IAS officer Dhaliwal, who was working as Director of Land Records in Jalandhar city, resigned from his post just hours before his name was announced by the party.

While the bypoll to the Mukerian seat was necessitated by the death of Rajnish Babbi of the Congress, those in Jalalabad, Dhaka and Phagwara were necessitated after their MLAs vacated the seats.

The Jalalabad seat was vacated by former Deputy Chief Minister and Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal; Dhaka seat by AAP's H.S. Phoolka and Phagwara by BJP's Som Parkash.

Indu Bala is the widow of Babbi.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has said that the Congress would easily win the bypolls to all the four Assembly seats.

Polling is scheduled for October 21 and the counting of ballots will take place on October 24.

The Congress has 78 legislators in a House of 117.IANS