DHURI BYPOLL - Capt, Bajwa on dais, Cong puts up unity show

Tuesday, 24/03/2015

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/

Dhuri (Sangrur) : Aiming to counter the ruling SAD-BJP regime with its full might, the Opposition Congress here today put up a united face at a rally as party candidate Simar Partap Singh Barnala filed his nomination papers for the Dhuri Assembly bypoll.

All top Congress leaders from Punjab were present at the rally, organised at the Grain Market. Prominent among them were former Chief Minister and Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh, state Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa, Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar, former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and former Sangrur MP Vijay Inder Singla. Shakeel Ahmad, AICC general secretary and Punjab affairs in charge, too was present.

Though Amarinder and Bajwa shared the dais, they sat at a distance. The duo was not even noticed speaking to each other, though Amarinder did mention about Bajwa in his address.

Simar Partap is the son of former Dhuri MLA and SAD (Longowal) general secretary Gaganjeet Singh Barnala and the grandson of former Akali Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala. He has been fielded as a joint candidate by several parties opposed to the SAD-BJP coalition. He has been fighting on the Congress symbol (hand).

Simar filed his nomination around 1 pm before Returning Officer-cum-Dhuri Sub-Divisional Magistrate Rajesh Dhiman in the presence of his mother Harpreet Kaur and sister Sahib Kaur.

Several Congress legislators, including Kewal Singh Dhillon (Barnala), Mohammad Sadique (Bhadaur), Harchand Kaur Ghanauri (Mehal Kalan), Gurkirat Singh Kotli (Khanna), Hardayal Singh Kamboj (Rajpura), too were present.

The rally was also attended among others by SAD (Longowal) president Surjit Kaur Barnala, Gaganjeet Singh Barnala, SAD (Delhi) president Paramjit Singh Sarna, People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) senior leader Gurpeet Singh Bhatti, Sehajdhari Sikh Federation president Paramjit Singh Ranu, Baldev Singh Mann and Manjit Singh Calcutta.

All leaders from the stage gave a call to the voters of the Dhuri constituency to give a crushing defeat to the SAD-BJP alliance. They said the “defeat would be a befitting lesson to the ruling alliance, which had pushed the state youth towards drugs”. They said the Dhuri bypoll was a semifinal ahead of the Assembly elections in 2017.

Amarinder alleged that SAD candidate Gobind Singh Longowal was the same person who had run away from getting his statement recorded before the police after the assassination of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. He said Simar Partap, on the other hand, was an educated youth who would live up to the expectations of the people of Dhuri.

Ahmad assured the Sanjha Morcha leadership of full Congress support to ensure the victory of Simar Partap. Jakhar also urged the voters to vote for the Congress.