Announcing this here yesterday, the party secretary general Dr. Devinder Sharma said they would contest these elections on their own to keep the mainstream Congress, besides the SAD-BJP combine out of power. Citing the nominations of Parneet Kaur from Patiala and Shamsher Singh Dullo from Ropar, he accused the Congress of fielding influential and tainted candidates in Punjab. Sharma said the party has only fielded the affluent classes and lost its socialist aims.

Accompanied by the All India party president -- Prabhjit Singh Ahluwalia and state president Bhupinder Pal Singh, he charged that both the Congress and the BJP are selling tickets to the rich. Terming the All India Garib Congress members as true heirs of Indira Gandhi, Sharma disclosed that the Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar is in touch with them. ``Although, we have resolved to contest there elections on our own, we are still in the process of roping in like-minded parties to strengthen a front of the downtrodden."

The All-India Garib Congress leader said the names of party candidates will be announced shortly, as of now, we have decided to field Lal Chand Rao from Ludhiana north by-election, he said. Both Ahluwalia and Bhupinder Pal Singh assured to field non-controversial candidates.

Sirsa residents bags Tata Sumo
Wilkinson Sword India Ltd here has announced that Pawan Kumar Garg, a resident of Sirsa district in Haryana, has bagged the grand first prize of Tata Sumo in its Wilkinson "sword chalo shaan se contest." Baljinder Kumar of Patiala is among the 20 winners, who have won Bajaj Scooters. In all, 2.7 lakh people from all over the country participated in the contest, said Wilkinson managing director Jagdish Kini, adding that the company would launch another prize in the 3-4 months. Wilkinson, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Gillette Corporation, markets alkaline batteries and low price blades.