AAP candidate from Ferozepur resigns, joins Congress
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Jan, 2022 11:37 AM
Hours after quitting as the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Ferozepur (Rural) constituency in Punjab on Monday, Ashu Bangar was inducted into the Congress by party Chief Minister Charanjit Channi.
Channi in Chandigarh announced that Bangar would be party's candidate from the Ferozepur (Rural) seat as he is young with dreams to serve society.
Earlier, poll debutant Bangar told the media in Ferozepur that he was being "humiliated and pressurised" by the AAP leadership to spend more on electioneering.
He alleged AAP is being run like a private company by leaders from Delhi. "Candidates are pressurised with threats that their ticket would be cancelled, so no one speaks up."
He said AAP was functioning like a private company under state in-charge Raghav Chadha, "who was behaving like a dictator and mentally torturing AAP volunteers". "All decisions are being taken from Delhi without taking local Punjabis taken into confidence."
He also took objection to the AAP's charge that Balbir Singh Rajewal-led Samyukt Samaj Morcha is in league with the BJP.
He said people were angry with Chadha over his remarks against farmers when they refused to support the AAP.
Responding to Bangar's allegations against AAP, Congress spokesperson Alka Lamba, in a video message, said: "History repeats itself once again. In 2017, similar allegations were made against AAP and Punjabis never forgave them. It shows that only faces have changed but their modus operandi remains the same."
Refuting Bangar's allegations, Chadha said: "There is a conspiracy to hurt the AAP and I'm told that a senior leader of the Congress had called up the Ferozepur candidate and put pressure on him to quit the party."
Punjab will go to the polls in a single phase for the 117-member assembly on February 20.
Channi expressed regret while participating in a virtual meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi with Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors/Administrators of states and UTs to review the prevailing Covid situation as well as the ongoing vaccination drive.
Unveiling the first set of plans in his Punjab Model with focus on resurrection of Punjab, Sidhu, in the absence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and his Cabinet colleagues, told the media here: "Punjab Model is people's model, an effort to give a roadmap to return power to people."
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that he "personally" feels that alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab had cost the BJP heavily.
India on Tuesday recorded 1,68,063 new Covid cases, taking the total tally to 8,21,446. Although the fresh infections were 6.4 per cent less than Monday when the country logged 1,79,723, the weekly positivity rate has climbed to 8.85 per cent and the daily positivity rate has declined to 10.64 per cent. On the other hand, 4,461 Omicron cases were recorded from 28 states.
Delhi reported a 25 per cent surge in Covid-19 cases after recording 19,166 fresh cases. With this, the infection tally has climbed to 15,68,896. Meanwhile, the city has recorded 17 Covid deaths on the second consecutive day, pushing the death toll to 25,177.
On Monday, after a detailed hearing in the matter, a bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said the court will set up a committee headed by a retired top court judge to probe the PM's security breach and asked both the Centre and Punjab government to not move ahead with their respective inquiries into the matter.
