Amarinder Singh holds show of strength at his Patiala palace

Says State Congress too will organise a rally in Amritsar on January 22

January 12, 2015 12:00 am | Updated April 02, 2016 02:54 am IST - CHANDIGARH:

Congress leader and Amritsar MP Amarinder Singh addressing a meeting of party MPs, MLAs and ex-MLAs at his residence in Patiala on Sunday.– Photo: PTI

Congress leader and Amritsar MP Amarinder Singh addressing a meeting of party MPs, MLAs and ex-MLAs at his residence in Patiala on Sunday.– Photo: PTI

As a majority of its sitting and former MPs, MLAs and office-bearers decided to throw their weight behind their Deputy Parliamentary Party Leader, Amarinder Singh, the Punjab unit of the Congress on Sunday decided to organise a rally in Amritsar on January 22, when BJP president Amit Shah would also launch his anti-drugs rally from the same city.

In a major show of strength by the “Maharaja” in Patiala, at least 200 leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Sunil Jakhar, 35 out of the 44 sitting MLAs, about 50 former legislators, Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh, who is the grandson of the assassinated Chief Minister, Beant Singh, and various officer-bearers of the Pradesh Congress Committee pledged to work under the leadership of Capt Singh to revive the party and strengthen the hands of president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

It was decided that from January 22, the Congress would launch a State-wide campaign against the present government led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The party would go all out to expose the dual talk by the BJP, which was supporting as well as opposing its alliance partner, the Akali Dal. It would mobilise public opinion against the NDA government's ordinance diluting the “farmer-friendly” Land Acquisition Act enacted by the previous Congress led UPA government. This would be followed by a series of rallies at the Assembly constituency level, where Capt Singh would address the people.

Capt Singh is also the MP from Amritsar, where he had defeated Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the last year’s general elections. Observers feel that with the Sunday’s luncheon meeting at his Royal Moti Palace in Patiala, Capt Singh has sent the “necessary” signal to the party high command to resolve the factionalism and leadership issues in the State if they were serious to win the 2017 Assembly polls.

In his reaction, Capt Singh’s bête noir, party State unit president Partap Singh Bajwa welcomed the “belated initiative” to confront Mr Shah in Amritsar by organising a counter anti-drug rally. However he asserted that the programme would be organised under the umbrella of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and the modalities would be chalked out in consultation with the party high command after the Muktsar rally at Maghi festival on January 14. He expressed satisfaction over the endorsement by Capt Singh to the PPCC’s programme to confront Mr Shah on various issues including BJP’s double face on the drugs issue, forced conversions under the ‘Ghar Vapsi’ campaign, uprooting of Punjabi farmers from Gujarat and non- implementation of the one rank one pension decision for the Armed forces. He said that the party would remind Mr Shah that it was the Congress which had taken up issue of growing drugs addiction and involvement of Akali ministers in the peddling of narcotics, for which the party had demanded a CBI probe.

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