Cong puts up united face as Amarinder leads roadshow
GURDASPUR: On the last day of campaigning for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll, the ruling Congress put up a united face on Monday with chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh holding a roadshow with other senior leaders of the party.
Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa, who was reportedly upset with the party for ignoring his ex-MLA wife Charanjit Kaur Bajwa for party ticket for the bypoll and had joined the campaign to back party candidate Sunil Jakhar a few days ago, also took part in the road show.
A total of 11 candidates are in the fray for the byelection on Wednesday, though the main fight is between the BJP candidate Swaran Salaria, Congress’ Sunil Jakhar, and Aam Aadmi Party’s Maj Gen Suresh Kumar Khajuria (retd).
Expressing that the Congress will win the byelection with a margin of over two-lakh votes, Amarinder said his government had set the ball rolling for the state’s development in its sixmonth rule. “People will vote for the Congress for its good governance,” he said.
“We created around 27,000 jobs in just six months and are targeting four-lakh jobs by February,” said the CM.
Trashing reports of differences with Bajwa, the CM said he was always with the party and has been actively campaigning for Jakhar.
Talking to the media, Bajwa said all Congress workers are united. “There may be some differences, but the party comes first,” he said.
The Lok Sabha seat fell vacant in April this year following the death of veteran actor Vinod Khanna due to cancer. Khanna had stormed the Congress bastion in 1998 when he defeated five-time Congress MP Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder. He held the seat till 2004 and then from 2014 till his death.
The CM, who seemed to be in a hurry to wind up the campaign, left thousands of party works and supporters disappointed who waited for him for hours in Pathankot and Gurdaspur as he didn’t step out of the bus. A Congress leader in Gurdaspur said: “Amarinder should have met and encouraged party workers.”
Before ending the campaign, Amarinder made a brief halt at Gandhi Chowk in Batala where he addressed party supporters.