Although Congress has given enough signals to field Manish Tewari as the candidate from Ludhiana in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the news has not gone down well with former Congress MP Gurcharn Singh Galib. Galib, who wishes to contest on the party ticket, has given enough indications to the high command that if he is denied the party ticket, he might contest as an independent candidate or on the SAD ticket.

Claiming support of seven sitting Congress councillors and 10 former councillors, he says, “I am not sure about my next course of action but I am keen to contest this time.”

Galib contested from the Congress ticket in 1992 and 1999 general elections and won both times.

Galib targetted Manish Tewari by calling him an outsider.

“Tewari comes to the city on weekends when all government offices are closed and hence he has not been able to solve the ongoing problems of the masses,” he said.

Time and again, the AICC spokesperson has faced the wrath of his party workers for being an outsider. In the last general elections, he had lost to SAD candidate Sharanjit Singh Dhillon.

Councillors who have come to the aid of disgruntled Galib include— Prem Mittal, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Mamta Ashu, Sneh Lata, Raju Thaper, Narinder Chaudhary and a few former councillors like Balkar Singh Sandhu, Dr Jai Parkash, Santokh Singh Gill and Asha Garg.