Bajwa To Beat SAD By Their Own Weapon

Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa and party representative Brahm Mohindra exhibiting the Shiromani Akali Dal assembly poll manifesto to the media at Allowal village near the royal city on May 14.

Odd but factual. The Punjab Congress president is electioneering in the Panchayati Raj Institution polls with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) manifesto in hand.

Bajwa first readouts what SAD had assured in manifesto before the assembly polls and then asks individuals: “Did you get it?”

“Rs 1.000 joblessness grant,” he reads out from the program, summons a young man from the meeting and asks him: “Tell everybody how much you get as joblessness grant?”

The young man said that he doesn’t find any, and Bajwa carries on: “Where are the laptops and the metro trains you were promised?

On pension and Shagun plans as well, he attacks the administration. “In the program, the Akalis assured to double the retirement fund of widows and oldsters. Show it to the Akalis when they come to your house to ask for vote,” added Bajwa.

“In fourteen months since they have been into supremacy, they haven’t fulfilled any of the 204 poll promises.”

“If you go by this policy,” Bajwa tells a woman, Satwant Kaur, “the administration has to pay you Rs. 14,000 for the last 14 months, because it doubled your pension. First claim this amount and then vote for the Akalis.”

The state administration owed Rs. 1,000 on a monthly basis to each of the 65-lakh jobless youth in the state, added Bajwa. “The administration that siphons the Shagun destined for your daughters has no right to hunt for vote,” he tells the voters.

“Almost 80,000 Shagun applications are pending,” he adds.

At a public gathering here in the Patiala Rural community, Bajwa gave the SAD proposal copy to local representative Brahm Mohindra with orders to distribute its copies in villages.

“It’s high time to exhibit the administration through its own tool,” said Bajwa.

“Both CM Parkash Singh Badal and his son, deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, have cheated individuals and pushed Punjab into a financial obligation of Rs. 1-lakh crore. Where has this funds gone?” he added.

Fearing supports and aggression in the polls, he stated the party would ask the state election commissioner for paramilitary security and video-recording facility at every booth. “The police are playing into hands of jathedars, while the Akalis continue to threaten our men,” he said.

PPCC revamp after elections

The revamping of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) is workable, as state party president Bajwa has stated that he will declare his novel group after the panchayat polls.

Bajwa, disregarded by the party high command on this question once, has sought another appointment with it. “I would like to modify not only Punjab group but also some region presidents in the next fortnight.” he said at Allowal on Tuesday. He claims to have the sanction to include 10 to 15 confidants. At the present time, he works with group Amarinder that may get the boot.

Tikku in danger zone?

Bajwa on Tuesday suggested at taking action against heads missing from the Congress drive for the May 19 zila parishad and block samiti polls.

“Raninder Singh, and whosoever else is missing, won’t be spared,” he stated.