Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Monday warned Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Shiromani Akali Dal president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal against highhandedness and use of official machinery to intimidate the councillors from the opposition in the elections to the civic body chiefs.
Referring to two specific instances in this regard, Bajwa said that a Congress councillor from Gidderbaha was taken away forcibly to pressurise him, and was later let off only after the local MlA and All India Youth Congress president Raja Amarinder Singh Warring lodged protest with the Chief Minister.
“Yet another case was that of Vijay Kumar Tinku of Morinda who had been framed in a case under Section 164 which was non-bailable. Congress MlA Charanjit Singh Channi would lead a demonstration against such highhandedness in Morinda on Wednesday,” he said.
Bajwa said that complaints were pouring in from all over the State of the Akali Dal activists trying to terrorize the Congress councillors by even sitting outside their houses to block their movements. “Akali Dal has fared badly in these elections and the party is now trying to coerce the adversaries into falling in line so that the ruling party could have its own civic body chief everywhere,” he alleged.
The State Congress chief made it clear to the ruling party leaders that every such bullying tactic of the Akali Dal would be thwarted and the Congress was fully united to give a befitting reply.