Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh has sought his high command’s permission to fight next month’s assembly elections against Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in the latter’s traditional Lambi seat.
Amarinder, whose name has already been announced by the Congress for his traditional assembly seat of Patiala Urban, said in Amritsar yesterday that he wanted to contest against Badal from Lambi to defeat the Akali Dal patron whom he blamed for the “ruin of Punjab”.
“I want to fight the chief minister on his home turf of Lambi as I want to defeat all the top Akali leaders responsible for destroying the state through their drugs, mafia and goonda raj, and who are guilty of ruining its trade, industry and agriculture,” he said.
Amarinder said he had requested the Congress high command to allow him to fight the assembly polls from Lambi so that he could “free Punjab from the vicious and destructive rule of the Badals”.
Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal asked Amarinder “to take quick permission” to contest from Lambi “before the nomination filing process comes to an end”.
Describing the development as “pathetic and last-ditch attempt by a failed king to stem the rot in his sinking ship”, Sukhbir Badal, who is also the deputy chief minister, said: “Amarinder had been resorting to cheap theatrics since the last few months, including false promises of a farm loan waiver which had not been reflected in the party’s manifesto, and the development that he had asked for permission to contest against Parkash Singh Badal was another ploy to gain cheap publicity.”
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is posing a serious challenge to the Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and the Congress for the February 4 assembly polls, has already announced Delhi lawmaker Jarnail Singh to contest against Badal from Lambi.
In other developments, in a blow to Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), two of its senior party leaders yesterday joined the BJP ahead of the assembly polls.
Former transport minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led government Raja Aridaman Singh hitched the bandwagon in the presence of state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya.
The district Co-operative Bank chairperson and declared SP candidate for the Khairagarh assembly seat, Pakshalika Singh, also joined the BJP, expressing his faith in the party policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Meanwhile, the Akhilesh Yadav faction seems to be inching closer to sealing a deal with the Congress, even as the Election Commission is yet to decide on the fate of the SP and its symbol cycle.
While speculation about a pre-poll alliance has been in the air for some time, hoardings of Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav, who is Akhilesh’s wife, along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have come up in Allahabad - fuelling the speculation. The hoardings with pictures of both women figuring prominently have been put up by Congress workers Anil Chowdhary and Irshad Ullah.
Ullah, who is general secretary of the district Congress committee in Allahabad, says the workers want this tie-up to happen at the earliest as this would not only consolidate woman power but also prevent division of Muslim vote. This will stop the BJP from coming to power, he says.
There are many votaries who favour the Congress and the Akhilesh faction to come together. Sources say, Akhilesh Yadav has propped up his wife to negotiate with Priyanka Gandhi while he is working the wires with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and his team.
Related Story