Cong ridicules BJP’s decision

Tuesday, 13/01/2015

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AMRITSAR: The Congress o n Mo n d ay cl a i m e d th a t “Amarinder phobia” was still fresh in the minds of BJP leaders, which prompted them to postpone Amit Shah’s rally on January 22 in Amritsar.

“Having tasted a defeat from Amritsar, the BJP was scared of putting its popularity to a test in Punjab once again and that too against the most popular leader of the Punjabis,” said Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Gurdaspur District Congress Committee (DCC) chief and Dera Baba Nanak MLA.

Randhawa said the decision did not surprise him. It was expected after Congress’ deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh announced to hold a ‘lalkar rally’ on the same day in the Holy City, which he represents in Parliament, he said.

“The BJP tried to test Amarinder’s popularity in the Lok Sabha elections last year and got a befitting reply with the defeat of its candidate Arun Jaitley. The BJP was obviously scared of challenging the former chief minister once again so it decided to postpone its rally,” he added.

Randhawa claimed that the BJP was fully aware that it would not be able to muster a sizeable crowd for its rally despite the presence of Shah. On the other hand the saffron party was equally aware of Captain’s popularity, he added.

DELHI POLLS A LAME EXCUSE

Amritsar DCC chief Gurjeet Singh Aujla toed the similar lines as his neighbouring district colleague, saying: “The announcement of dates for the Delhi assembly polls seems to have come as an excuse for the BJP to postpone its rally.”

In a statement, Aujla said the BJP was aware that “with a parallel Congress rally on the same day, its rally was going to be a flop show”.

The Punjabis had been waiting for January 22 to send a message to the Narendra Modi government through Shah on the double standards of the party, he added.

“All these years they remained in power in the state, no BJP leader had the courage to speak against the Akalis on the drug issue. Now they had planned to bring in Shah to do the talking, but he sensed the anger and mood of the Punjabis and knew that he would have no answers to our leader’s (Amarinder) queries and charges against the ruling SAD-BJP government,” Aujla added.

On the excuse being offered for cancelling the rally, the DCC president said the Delhi elections are as important to Amarinder as to Shah.