Sonia, Rahul to visit state on April 24
Thursday, 17/04/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140417/punjab.htm#1
Chandigarh : To boost the morale of the Congress candidates and give a fillip to the party’s campaign in Punjab, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi would campaign for them on April 24 and 25.
In a related development, the newly formed Congress election campaign committee, headed by former Punjab Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, has decided to corner the SAD-BJP combine in the elections by drumming up activities of “sand and drug mafia” and “excessive taxation leading to inflation” and “meagre pension” as the core election plank of the party.
The party’s campaign poll panel got a shot in the arm when senior Congress leader Jagmeet Singh Brar, who was “sulking” over not getting the ticket from Amritsar or Ludhiana, made an announcement today that he would campaign “whole heartedly” for senior Congress leaders — Capt Amarinder Singh and Partap Singh Bajwa — in Amritsar and Gurdaspur, respectively.
“Rahul and Sonia are proposed to visit Ludhiana on April 24 and 25. We are busy in giving final shape to their programme. We will decide where to take them in the state for campaigning. Their visit to constituencies will be strictly on requirement basis. Besides, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to visit the state in the coming days,” Bhattal said.
The other members of the campaign panel include former Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla, Jagmeet Brar and Capt Vikram Singh, who reached here today to give a final shape to the party’s campaign strategy.
They said the campaign committee and the Congress leadership would educate people how industrialists, businessmen, small traders, farmers, employees and Dalits were fleeced by the ruling SAD-BJP combine by imposing “tyrannical” tax regime and sheltering different shades of mafia.
“The construction of a house has gone out of the reach of a common man as prices of sand have increased five to six folds in the past six months due to the sand mafia flourishing under the patronage of the ruling alliance. Employees are not getting their salaries on time. Had all this happened anytime during our government’s rule in the state?” questioned Singla.
