Congress puts all hands on deck to wrest friend-turned-rival Amarinder’s Patiala bastion

With more than one score to settle against its former stalwart Amarinder Singh, the Congress is going all out to wrest the Patiala Lok Sabha seat, which has been a long-standing citadel of the ex-chief minister and head of the erstwhile Patiala royal family.

Amarinder’s wife Preneet Kaur, the sitting Congress MP from Patiala, is contesting the seat on the BJP ticket this time.

Seen as synonymous with the Congress in Punjab, Amarinder quit the party in September 2021 after he was removed as CM. Later, he merged the outfit he had founded with the BJP, though Preneet officially continued with the Congress.

The Congress has fielded Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, who had defeated Preneet in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Patiala on the ticket of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), as its candidate. Dr Gandhi, who quit the AAP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is a much-respected cardiologist of the area, known to offer free services to the poor.

Both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned for Dr Gandhi in Patiala, the only constituency in Punjab where both the siblings pitched in. Campaigning for Dr Gandhi on Wednesday, Rahul said: “Dharamvira ji has a mohabbat ki dukaan in Patiala, where he runs an OPD for the poor… I have been trying to convey a message of love… for 10 years. But Dharamvira ji has been doing it for 50 years.”

Apart from Rahul and Priyanka, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who is himself fighting a tough contest in Ludhiana, came down to Patiala to campaign.

Congress sources admitted that Dr Gandhi faced resistance initially from local leaders of the party. However, the “handholding” by senior leaders sent the