Chandigarh, Feb 3 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is likely to announce the chief minister's face in his virtual address from Ludhiana city in Punjab on February 6, sources said on Thursday.
This will be his second visit to the state in less than a week.
In his previous visit, Rahul Gandhi had assured workers that the party will decide CM candidate well ahead of the February 20 polling.
With his assurance a power struggle is on between party state President Navjot Sidhu and Charanjit Singh Channi, the first Dalit Chief Minister of a state that is home to 32 per cent Scheduled Caste population, the country's largest, to be the chief ministerial candidate.
Currently, voters have been getting tele-calls to give their opinion as to who should nominate the Congress as its chief ministerial candidate.
In the fray for 117 seats in Punjab are three prominent parties -- the ruling Congress, the opposition Aam Aadmi Party and the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, and two alliances -- the SAD-BSP and the BJP-Punjab Lok Congress.
Punjab will go to polls in a single phase on February 20 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.
On Masoodi's query on Farooq Abdullah's house arrest, Singh said: "This is not even house arrest. I would rather say Amit Shah is one of those kind-hearted Home Ministers who has put those people under house arrest in their own houses."
After four months, the authorities on Wednesday decided to restore internet facility on the fixed landline connections in Kashmir, top sources told IANS.
Saying the Sikh community was pained and anguished, the Akali Dal on Tuesday described as "very unfortunate" the statement of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on not commuting the death sentence of Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoana for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
The state-wide facility will be available on DIAL 100, 112 and 181 through which a woman caller will be immediately connected to the Police Control Room (PCR), it said.
