Valtoha, Sidhu in fresh war of words

Sunday, 16/11/2014

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20141116/punjab.htm#7

Amritsar : Firing a fresh salvo against Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, Akali Dal CPS Virsa Singh Valtoha today asked her to tell the people “why she backstabbed her party and political mentor Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha poll.

In a statement released here today, Valtoha asked her to explain whether she and her husband made phone calls to Capt Amarinder Singh during the Lok Sabha election campaign. He also alleged that her relatives campaigned for Amarinder Singh in Amritsar and later for Preneet Kaur in the Patiala assembly bypoll.

“You should also tell whether you are part of the BJP or part of a two person (husband and wife) team which uses the BJP’s tag only when it suits them. Since the party is of no importance to you, please explain whether you are a Congress agent who is playing according to a well laid out Congress game plan,” the Akali leader said.

Reacting to Dr Sidhu’s statement to the media yesterday, Valtoha said she had now “invented a further excuse to up the ante against the SAD and was hallucinating about a promise of funds only she knew of”. He said Dr Sidhu's constituency received around Rs 75 crore from the Municipal Corporation and the Improvement Trust, besides being the largest recipient of MPLAD funds from her husband Navjot Singh Sidhu.

The Akali leader said the issue of funds or lack of them was never an issue as far as her constituency was concerned. “The issue is of her personal ambition and that of her husband,” he said, adding the SAD had no role to play in this matter.

Stating that “erratic and bizarre behaviour was intolerable” in coalition politics, Valtoha said Dr Sidhu could not enjoy being in the government and simultaneously oppose coalition candidates and even sit in Congress dharnas. “This shows you have little respect for your own state president who has rebuked you for speaking out of turn as well as party seniors who are responsible for taking decisions on coalition matters,” he said.

Dr Sidhu responded to his allegations by saying, “Being a doctor, I can only advise Valtoha to get his mental check up done in a hospital.” She also stated that had her constituency received funds worth Rs 75 crore the people in her area would not have been forced to live in virtually hell like conditions. She rejected all the allegations leveled by him as totally baseless.