Former Union Minister Santosh Chaudhary on Sunday blamed Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh after she was denied Congress ticket to contest the coming general election from Hoshiarpur and asked the party high command to explain why she was punished for no reason.
The Congress has given ticket to its sitting MLA Raj Kumar Chabbewal from Hoshiarpur parliamentary seat.
Addressing the media in Phagwara,Chaudhary, a three-time MP, alleged Singh was responsible for the denial of ticket to her. She asked the party high command to explainto her why she was punished for no reason and why electorates were insulted by fielding a turncoat.
She alleged that a turncoat was preferred to a time-tested party leader in allocating ticket from Hoshiarpur.
She was referring to Raj Kumar Chabbewal who was allotted party ticket from Hoshiarpur, ignoring her claim.
"A man who is MLA for just two years was preferred to Chaudhary family having 80 years standing in Congress through its three generations," she said.
"The party has discriminated against a Dalit woman leader whom public liked and preferred a moneyed man and a turncoat who was facing opposition in his own assembly constituency," she said.
She further alleged that the party had "ignored" its own stand of giving 33 per cent representation to women.
She even went on to allege that a section of party appeared to be in league with the BJP as former BJP man was preferred to a time-tested and clean-imaged Chaudhary family.
"Even in the last Lok Sabha polls, I was denied ticket,only to facilitate BJP win from Hoshiarpur," she alleged further.
Maintaining that she had remained silent earlier, she declared that she would not remain silent now and would chalk out the next course of action after discussing the issue with her supporters.
Chaudhary, who represented this seat thrice, also asked the party to review its decision of giving ticket to Chhabewal.
Asking party high command to either review its decision about the Hoshiarpur seat or be ready to face stringent step from her and her supporters, she declared that she would take the fight to its logical conclusion.
However, she did not spell out the nature of stringent step.
Her father-in-law Sundar Singh had represented the Phillaur Lok Sabha seat twice, while she had represented it thrice.