CAPTAIN TO ADDRESS FIRST RALLY IN AMRITSAR TODAY
Wednesday, 08/07/2015
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AMRITSAR: Deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh is all set to address his first political rally in his constituency — since his victory over BJP senior leader and now Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in the parliamentary polls last year from Amritsar — in the Attari assembly segment on Wednesday.
The rally — fifth in the line of his mass contact programme that he commenced from Jalandhar last month — will be held at a marriage palace near Khasa in Attari.
These rallies are seen as a part of the Amarinder camp’s strategies to galvanise their supporters ahead of the 2017 assembly polls.
Having already drawn impressive crowds at rallies in Jalandhar, Gurdaspur and two recent ones in Patiala district, the Congress leadership of Majha is leaving no stone unturned to put up an impressive show. Barring a few Congress leaders, who support Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa, senior leadership of the party from Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran districts are with Amarinder. These include all party MLAs of the region, with the exception of Charanjit Kaur Bajwa, wife of the state party chief.
In fact, instead of just one single rally, the Amritsar (rural) District Congress Committee (DCC) has planned two functions. After the rally in the Attari assembly segment, Amarinder will move to Majitha, where he will address a workers’ meeting.
While Attari ‘halqa’ in-charge Tarsem Singh DC will be handling the first rally, Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lalli Majithia has planned a workers’ meeting at Grain Market in Majitha. Initially, Amarinder had planned to meet workers over a cup of tea, but Lalli Majithia and DCC (rural) chief Gurjit Singh Aujla insisted on a full-fledged workers’ meeting to which the Amritsar MP agreed.
In fact a large section of Congressmen from Amritsar district were keen that Amarinder commence his mass contact programme from Majitha. But certain senior leaders, including MLAs, who are secretly referred to as “friends of (Bikram Singh) Majithia” in local Congress circles prevailed upon the erstwhile maharaja of Patiala to leave Majitha out for the time being. But in the end Lalli Majithia, most bitter critic of the powerful cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia had his say.
“Congress workers from Majitha constituency suffered the most at the hands of Majithia and ignoring them would have hurt their feelings. At the workers’ meet, they will speak their hearts out and tell maharaja sahib about the criminal cases that were registered against them for refusing to obey the dictates of the minister,” Lalli Majithia told mediapersons here on Tuesday.
Besides people from the Attari area, those from the adjoining assembly segments of Raja Sansi and Amritsar West are also being ferried to the rally. Hence, Raja Sansi MLA Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria and Amritsar West MLA Dr Raj Kumar are actively involved in orgnaisation of the rally. Amritsar Central MLA OP Soni will also make his presence felt by ensuring the participation of workers from his constituency.
Aujla is coordinating the arrangements for the two functions. This will be Amarinder’s second visit to his parliamentary constituency this year.
