Nawanshahr (Punjab): For 75-year-old Charanjit Singh Channi, who is pitted against his nephew Angad Singh in this assembly constituency, contesting against someone from the politically-inclined family is not new as he had once fought polls against his own mother.
A fierce battle within the family is on the cards as 26-year-old Congress candidate Angad takes on his AAP nominee Channi.
Angad is the second youngest from Congress to test electoral waters, the youngest being 25-year-old Davinder Singh Ghubaya, an economics student who is contesting from Fazilka Assembly segment.
But Angad looks unfazed by the entry of his uncle, who is the oldest among all the nine candidates contesting from Nawanshahr including SAD's 72-year-old leader Jarnail Singh Wahid.
Angad is the son of sitting Congress MLA Guriqbal Kaur, who opted out of the race this time. Kaur had defeated SAD nominee Satinder Kaur in the 2012 assembly polls.
"My grandfather Dilbagh Singh was a six-time legislator from here and he also served as Agriculture Minister in the Beant Singh government," says Angad.
The young Congress leader's father Prakash Singh also was a Parliamentary Secretary after winning the polls from here in 2002.
It is the legacy which Angad, a young businessman, wants to carry forward, but for this he will have to prevail over his uncle.
"It is unfortunate that the person who should have shown me the path ahead and guided me is fighting against me," he says, adding "Channi Sahib has changed parties in the past as well".
Elected Nawanshahr Youth Congress general secretary in 2008 and its president in 2012, Angad says corruption, drugs and lack of development are the main issues.
"Then there are local issues like massive problem of traffic bottlenecks here. The Ropar-Phagwara road has now a National Highway project. We hope things will be better in times to come. We also need a ring road, which will help solve the problem of massive traffic jams as heavy traffic passes through Nawanshahr," he says.
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