Continuing its move to field party bigwigs in in Punjab, the Congress Monday announced that it was fielding Sunil Kumar Jakhar, the leader of opposition in state assembly, as its candidate from the state's Ferozepur seat for the Lok Sabha elections.Jakhar, son of former union minister and Lok Sabha speaker Balram Jakhar, is the sitting Congress legislator from the Abohar seat in Punjab.Two other Congress candidates announced in the list from Punjab include Sadhu Singh Dharamsot from Fatehgarh Sahib and Joginder Singh Panjgrain from Faridkot.Last week, the Congress had fielded former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh from the Amritsar seat to take on Bharatiya Janata Party heavy-weight Arun Jaitley.
The Congress also announced former union minister Ambika Soni for the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha seat in place of sitting MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, a grandson of former chief minister Beant Singh.The party released a list of 16 candidates that included union Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena from Dausa in Rajasthan, but kept up the suspense on its candidate for Varanasi to take on BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.The party announced two candidates from Karnataka, one from Maharashtra, two from Rajasthan, one from Uttar Pradesh, three each from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.Party sources said that discussions were on to decide a candidate for Varanasi.