Congress made a mistake by declaring CM's face: Amarinder
Darpan News Desk IANS, 08 Feb, 2022 05:33 PM
Patiala, Feb 8 (IANS) Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said the Congress had made a big mistake by announcing a chief minister's face as "a chief minister should be decided on grounds of capability and not on the metric of caste, be it a Scheduled Caste, Jat or Hindu, which they had done."
Pointing out that Punjab was never before divided on caste or religious lines, Capt Amarinder said "Charanjit Channi does not have the calibre of a chief minister," and his tall claims cannot fool the people of the state.
"Channi claims he has done everything in 111 days, he's fooling the people. Every project has a gestation period and takes months to start," he noted, warning the people against getting carried away by such brazen lies since all the projects that Channi talks of were initiated by his government.
Interacting with the media after a public meeting in support of the Patiala Rural PLC candidate, Sanjeev Kumar Bittu, the former chief minister warned of an explosion soon from Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had been discarded by his own party for chief ministerial candidature in favour of Channi, saying the PPCC president was too ambitious to stay quiet for long.
Pointing out that leaders like Channi and Sukhjinder Randhawa had backstabbed him and misled the Congress high command after he had supported them in their political careers, the PLC chief said these men could not be trusted.
"They will compromise the interests of Punjab to further their own," he warned, in response to questions. He recalled how he had inducted Channi into the Congress and helped him become MLA and ensured Randhawa's seat in the last election.
Answering a question, the former chief minister said there was no comparison between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi as far as political and public life experience goes.
He had known Modi for long and used to meet him frequently in Delhi at a time when they were both chief ministers, he said, adding that the Modi government had helped him whenever Punjab was in dire straits.
"We have to work with them to ensure a safe future for Punjab," he stressed. "The future of Punjab depends on these polls," he said, underlining the need for close Centre-state coordination to secure the state's interests.
To a question on whether his wife, MP Preneet Kaur, would campaign for him or the Congress, Amarinder said it was for her to answer that.
"Politics is different...my mother was in the BJP and I was in the Congress. We sat in opposite benches in Parliament. Politics politics 'hoti hai pyaar pyaar hota hai'," he remarked.
Urging the people to vote for "vikas" which only the NDA could provide and not "vinaash", which the other parties would push Punjab towards, Amarinder expressed confidence that the people of the state would look after their interests and vote accordingly.
He trashed the surveys favouring the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), saying such polls were conducted even in 2017 and had proven to be false. While he could not predict the number of seats they would get, his party in alliance with the BJP and SAD (Sanyukt) was set to form the next government, he asserted.
Five-time Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patron Parkash Singh Badal on Monday filed his nomination for the upcoming assembly elections from Lambi constituency in Punjab's Muktsar district. He is the oldest candidate at 94 for the February 20 polls to the 117-member legislative Assembly.
According to sources, Dr Soundarya conducted naming ceremony of her baby three months ago. Police sources say that there are very less chances of family dispute and reason for the suicide is yet to be ascertained. The maid and statements collected so far in the apartment said that couple lived happily.
According to the BSF, around 5.15 a.m. an alert BSF team comprising Head Constable (HC) Gyan Singh and Constable Raju Biswas of 89 Battalion observed suspicious movement of miscreants, suspected to be smugglers both across the International Border as well as inside the Indian territory between the Border Outpost No. 33/06 and 33/07 in the cover of dense fog.
In an apparent embarrassment for Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, his 'elder sister' Suman Tur on Friday described him a 'cruel' for deserting her elderly mother after father's death with an intention to 'grab family property'. She told the media here that Sidhu had abandoned her mother and she passed away on a railway station in 1989.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday demanded transfer of state intelligence officials, including the top brass, who face charges of compromising the security of Punjab and indulging in electoral malpractices to provide "illegal, illegitimate and immoral" help to the ruling Congress.
Due to incessant rains and water logging of fields owing to overflow of nearby natural drains during September-October 2021 in Delhi, crops of farmers have been severely damaged, the Delhi government said in a release, adding that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had taken cognisance of the matter and assessed that a relief package for crop damage was necessary to be provided.
