‘Death of my mother Badal pushed me to this stage’
Thursday, 08/12/2016
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=169438&boxid=58867&uid=&dat=2016-12-08
Bathinda : Shiromani Akali Dal MLA from Balluana Gurtej Singh Ghuriana, who is these days annoyed with his party leadership for rejecting his claim over Vidhan Sabha ticket, on Wednesday rued that it was the death of his “mother” that made him suffer such a major political loss.
Ghuriana, while speaking to Daily Post over phone, used the word “mother” for late Surinder Kaur Badal, mother of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
“It was my mother Surinder Kaur Badal, who gave me ticket for the first time in 1997 and with her blessings I won with a handsome margin of about 22,000 votes,” said Ghuriana, adding that, “Had she been alive there would be no question over my claim for the party ticket.”
It is pertinent to mention that the SAD has this time allotted the party ticket to former MLA Parkash Singh Bhatti, who was appointed Chairman of Punjab SC Land Development and Finance Corporation some time back. Bhatti had joined the Akali Dal after he lost 2012 polls as independent candidate. Bhatti was actually a Congress rebel as his claim was rejected by the party.
Bhatti and Ghuriana have remained arch rivals in politics as they have contested three elections from the same seat against each other. In 2002, Bhatti, as Congress nominee, won the seat defeating Ghuriana but later he faced two defeats in row from Ghuriana, once in 2007 (as Congress nominee) and then in 2012 (as Congress rebel).
Expressing his anguishes, Ghuriana said that he was a strong candidate of Akali Dal but a group of partymen hatched a conspiracy and defamed him in such a way that the top leadership of the party opted to believe in them and rejected his claim, without even adhering to his version.
“People within the party, including the new comer (my rival), concocted a malicious story by attaching my name with a woman colleague that put a serious blot my character. The issue also disturbed my family life. I would again firmly say that there was no reality in that but the story damaged me a lot,” said Ghuriana.
Notably, about a year back, Ghuriana’s wife had reportedly made a suicide bid and was hospitalised for few days. It was learnt that she took the step after having an altercation with Ghuriana over his alleged relations with a woman whom he made getting appointed as the women wing leader of the SAD from Balluana segment. However, the family had later claimed that it was just the reaction of medicine which sent her to the hospital.
Projecting him a clean-image politician, Ghuriana claimed that despite being three-time MLA he never got indulged in money minting. He claimed that his house and car were on loan and the bank balance was smaller than a peon serving any office.
Expressing his plight, Akali MLA mentioned that he was seeking party ticket but he was discarded in such a manner that the party leadership didn’t even allocate him even a single bus to transport his supporters to Moga rally, scheduled for Thursday. A pained Akali MLA further added that the party candidate Parkash Singh Bhatti was given numerous buses to ferry people from constituency to the rally venue.
About his futuristic move, Bhatti said that he had just held a meeting with his supporters at his place in Abohar in the morning where he expressed his desire to hang up boots but they all insisted upon him to contest the elections.
“Now I will see if it suits me to contest on Congress ticket or to go as independent,” said Ghuriana, claiming that he was now compelled to fight the battle.
While speaking about his poll prospects, Ghuriana went on claiming that there were 53,000 votes of potter community (Kumhar) and 35,000 of Bishoni community, who would definitely support him apart from other general voters.
