Akali Dal President and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday said Capt Amarinder Singh was being led to the sacrificial altar by Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa who had conspired to get him, and other senior leaders fielded from the State after being forced to contest from Gurdaspur.
“Mark my words, Partap Bajwa is the PCC President and he would never digest Capt Singh being victorious from Amritsar. Amarinder’s campaign is destined to be sabotaged from within by Bajwa which will ensure his rout,”Sukhbir claimed in a statement issued here. He said, “Bajwa became jittery after being forced to fight from Gurdaspur and mooted the idea of fielding all the supposed heavyweights of the party. The purpose was to guard his flanks as he knows he will lose the election. He did not want to lose his PCC presidentship and that is why he conspired to make all the senior leaders fight the elections,” the Deputy CM added.The SAD President claimed it was not only Bajwa who wanted to ensure Capt Singh’s defeat. “Even the Congress rank and file want to teach him a lesson for leading the Punjab Congress to two successive assembly defeats. The Congress worker can never forget the arrogance displayed by Capt Singh during the run up to the last Assembly elections and is waiting to teach him a lesson for remaining inaccessible to the ordinary worker and relying on a coterie, which included people who shared the same royal lifestyle and had nothing to do with the people or politics.” Urging the people of Amritsar to end Capt Singh’s career once and for all, Sukhbir Badal said the Congress leader had earlier been snubbed in Bathinda when he tried to come out of his Patiala Assembly segment. “Now after he will be routed in Amritsar he will be unable to contest an election from anywhere in Punjab,” he added.