Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday dared the Congress to field its vice-president Rahul Gandhi from Bathinda to contest against the sitting Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
During a function to administer oath to newly elected Sarpanchs and Panchs of Bathinda district, Badal said that instead of supporting PPP leader Manpreet Singh Badal, the Congress should field the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family to test the political waters.
He said that Harsimrat Kaur Badal had performed exceptionally well during her current tenure due to which she was very popular among the voters of constituency. Badal said that owing to unprecedented development in Bathinda even Rahul Gandhi could not defeat Harsimrat Kaur Badal. The response of the Chief Minister came after some Congress leaders asked the Akali Dal to field Harsimrat from Amethi constituency in UP from where Gandhi is the sitting MP.
Rapping State Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa, the Chief Minister said that in dearth of any issue against the State Government, he was misleading the people by claiming that the State Government had shifted the site of Central University from Gurdaspur to Bathinda. He said that it was on record that the Union Government had itself evinced keen interest in setting up Central University at Bathinda following which the State Government had allotted land free of cost to them.