Bhattal warns against complacency
Tuesday, 04/10/2011
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111004/punjab.htm#6
The Punjab Congress Legislature Party (CLP), which gathered here today to devise a strategy to put the ruling SAD-BJP alliance on the mat in the assembly, was told by CLP Leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal that the party’s popularity had gone down in the past four months.
Sources said Bhattal, addressing CLP members in the party office after the first session of the assembly, said there was a feeling that the party’s popularity had gone down with some Congress men becoming complacent in the belief that Congress victory was a certainty.
Bhattal said she had talked to Pradesh Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh and discussed ways to take on the SAD-BJP combine in the assembly. Earlier, Baghapurana legislator Darshan Singh Brar said bureaucrats, unlike a few months ago, were not attending calls from Congressmen. This tilt towards the SAD was ominous.
Bhattal, when contacted, denied she had made a statement on the party’s popularity graph. She said more could be done and one should not under-estimate one’s rivals (SAD-BJP). The CLP has reportedly decided to force adjournment motions on the manner in which the public distribution system was being run as well as the transport policy. Talking to mediapersons, Bhattal said the party would release a “ white paper” on how central funds for social welfare schemes had been used to finance Sangat Darshan programmes.
Bhattal said the changes made in the transport policy owing to which 600 PRTC buses were lying idle would also be brought up in the assembly.
