Addressing a news conference on Friday here, Congress party leader, Madhusudan Mistry, announced an additional list of twenty six Congress candidates who will contest the polls.
Mistry, who is also a member of the election coordination committee of Congress, said that the party has cleared the names of the twenty six Congress candidates who will represent the party in the upcoming elections.
The two major names which figured in the list included that of senior Congress leader, Ambika Soni from Anandpur Sahib parliamentary constituency, and the former chief minister of Punjab, Amarinder Singh from Amritsar constituency in Punjab.
"Congress President (Sonia Gandhi) and the members of the election committee have cleared the names of the twenty six Congress candidates in a meeting held today. I will now read out their names. Ambika Soni will contest in place of Ravneet Singh Bittu from Anandpur Sahib, and Captain Amarinder will contest from Amritsar,"said Mistry.
As soon as news of the announcement of Captain Amarinder Singh spread among the Congress workers of Amritsar city, they came out in the street to celebrate.
The Congress workers distributed sweets, burst firecrackers and danced to celebrate the news.
A Congress worker, Gurjeet Ojla, said that that all the Congress party members and workers were very excited upon hearing the news of Amarinder Singh's candidature from Amritsar.
"We came to know in the evening about the announcement of Captain Amarinder Singh as the Congress candidate from Amritsar. I can see so much excitement among the Congress workers, that I have never seen before", said Ojla.
Meanwhile, Arun Jaitely representing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has already been declared by his party as the candidate who will contest Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar replacing Navjot Singh Sidhu.
