A day after Congress candidate from Amritsar Capt Amarinder Singh appealed all the leaders to return to the Congress fold, the SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Wednesday said that more senior Congress leaders were set to join Akali Dal in the next few days.
“No desperate ‘homecoming’ appeals as are being made by the beleaguered Amritsar Congress candidate Capt Amarinder Singh would have any effect on them…Senior Congress leaders are ringing me up at all hours with requests to join the SAD,” said Sukhbir.
He said that many Congress leaders were themselves coming to his residence appealing they be admitted to the SAD forthwith. “I am myself overwhelmed by the manner in which the senior rank and file of the Congress is deserting the party,” he added.
Sukhbir added that keeping in view the requests made by senior Congress leaders, he would be holding interactions with the media in the next few days and induct them into the SAD.
Stating that the induction of Congress leaders at the grass root level had been a continuous process since the last nearly two years, he said: “It is the desertion of the grass root leaders at the village and block level which has given the jitters to the senior leaders and is the main reason why they too want to desert the Congress ship.”
CAPT SUGGESTS BADAl TO UNDERGO lIE DETECTOR TEST
Amritsar: Taking a dig at Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for speaking “outright lies”, Congress candidate from Amritsar Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday described him as a ‘congenital and compulsive liar’ saying that Badal should better undergo a lie detector test to redeem and salvage his pride and prestige.
The former Chief Minister even challenged his successor to hold a public referendum to establish as to who is considered to be a liar by the people of Punjab.
Reacting to Badal's claims that the white paper was written by the Indian Government, Capt Amarinder said that he should have known that the government's white papers are sacrosanct documents based on truth and facts.
“He is trying to get away by saying even the White Paper was wrong and factually incorrect,” he remarked.
On Rajiv-longowal Accord, Capt Amarinder said, “Either Badal is resorting to outright lies as a congenital liar or has actually grown senile and forgotten his memory as I was not at all in the Congress when the accord was signed and had no role in it.”
He pointed out that he had resigned from the Parliament and the Congress party immediately after Operation Bluestar in
June 1984, while the accord was signed more than a year later.
SUKHBIR TEllS BAJWA TO STOP SEllING DREAMS; lIST ACHIEVEMENTS AS MP
Chandigarh: Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa’s move to project himself as the next Chief Minister of Punjab has not gone down well with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Taking a dig at Bajwa’s “dreams” statement, SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Wednesday said that the State Congress president had now “started selling dreams to the people instead of listing his achievements as MP of Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency during the last five years”.
“It is strange that at a time when Bajwa should be telling the people what he had done for them in the last five years, he is now urging them to elect him to the Parliament so that he could be in contention to become the Chief Minister of the state in 2017….What can be more ludicrous than thisIJ,” he said.
Maintaining that selling such dreams were akin to “mungeri lal ke haseen sapne”, Sukhbir said that Bajwa had apparently forgotten that Congress had thrown in the towel all over the country.
Urging Bajwa to live in real world and stop day-dreaming, he said that a vote of no confidence is being passed against you by Congress workers and leaders who were leaving the party in droves nearly every day.
Reminding the PCC president of the adage – ‘if wishes were horses, beggars would ride’, Sukhbir asked Bajwa to “tell them what you did for your constituents in the last five years. Your report card as an MP will be the only barometer by which you will be judged”.
ONlY 0.15% SPENT ON INDUSTRIES BY SAD-BJP GOVT: SINGlA
Sangrur: Congress candidate from Sangrur lok Sabha seat Vijay Inder Singla on Wednesday criticised the ruling SAD-BJP alliance for “step motherly” treatment given to the industry sector in Punjab.
“Akalis have not been taking adequate steps for employment generation through industrial promotion activities in the state,” said Singla, who is seeking re-election. No wonder, he observed, that industrial houses were not keen to invest in Punjab. “Only lip sympathy is being given...Investor summits are only a public relations exercise of the Akali-BJP Government which the State's citizens are well aware of," he said.
EX-MlA ASHOK SHARMA REJOINS CONGRESS
Pathankot/Gurdaspur: Giving a boost to the campaign of Punjab Congress Committee president Partap Singh Bajwa, former MlA Ashok Sharma on Wednesday re-joined the party.
Bajwa, welcoming Sharma on his home-coming, said that this would further strengthen the party in this crucial lok Sabha election which was a contest between two conflicting ideologies with the Congress representing the secular forces in the country characterised by diversity while BJP’s approach was hegemonic.
The move came during the first visit to the state of the party's national general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Dr Shakeel Ahmed after announcement of elections. Dr Ahmed said that the Congress in Punjab was gaining every day and the people in this border state would give a decisive result in favour of the party.