The Hindu : National : Congress puts up a united show in Punjab

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 02, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Congress puts up a united show in Punjab

Sarabjit Pandher

Photo: PTI

United we stand: Congress leaders Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Amarinder Singh, Mohinder Singh Kaypee, Union Minister Ambika Soni and Jagmeet Brar during the party rally at Lambi in Muktsar on Monday.

LAMBI (MUKTSAR): The Congress on Monday put up a united show of strength at Lambi in Muktsar district in the heartland of Punjab’s Malwa region where former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh sounded the bugle for the party’s campaign for the next Lok Sabha elections.

Capt. Singh appeared to have picked up the threads from where he left them in Amritsar last week. At Lambi, the public response to him was almost hysterical even as the party rank and file vied with each other to felicitate him. Various speakers on the occasion said Lambi was deliberately chosen as a venue to kick off the Congress poll campaign at it was represented by the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in the State Assembly and was a segment of the Faridkot Lok Sabha seat represented by Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the Akali Dal president. The exercise here would turn out to be a major wake-up call as people would realise the “winds of change” in Punjab.

Union Culture and Tourism Minister Ambika Soni, disclosing that she had been sent by party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to assess the situation, said that the public response was far beyond her expectations.

Expressing concern over lack of development in the State, Ms. Soni sought a thorough investigation into the goings-on as the Akali-BJP government received at least ten times more grants and financial aid from the UPA government at the Centre as compared to the previous NDA regime where Mr. Sukhbir Singh was a Minister.

In his speech, Capt. Singh, who was recently appointed chairman of the campaign committee of the party, expressed confidence that the Congress would sweep the upcoming Lok Sabha elections by winning all the 13 seats from the State. “Once this happens, the Badal regime would have no right to stay in power and we shall all work to force a mid-term poll for the State Assembly,” he said.

He said that since the Akali-BJP government was formed, 41 Congress workers had been murdered, 6,000 fake cases registered and thousands others illegally detained and tortured in police stations. “Let the occasion come, Mr. Badal and son would have to account for every act of repression,” he asserted.

Earlier talking to reporters, Capt. Singh quoted intelligence reports that the Akali leadership was scouting for musclemen and gangsters who could be used during the next elections. “Let me use this opportunity to warn them that we shall not tolerate any strong-arm tactics. While we shall request the Election Commission to depute adequate Central forces, our party workers would be prepared to pay back the Akalis in the same coin,” he affirmed. Punjab PCC president Mohinder Singh Kaypee said: “Badal fiddled when Punjab was burning.”

Leader of the Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal compared the present regime to “Ravan Raj” and said she had arrived here to pay “Sai” (earnest amount) for the ouster of “this failed and incompetent government”.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National