A united Punjab Congress today sounded the final bugle for the 2017 assembly elections in Punjab urging people to maintain the same momentum and ensure that the Akali-BJP government is inflicted a historic defeat. “This is the beginning of the final battle”, the Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh declared to a thundering applause from a mammoth crowd of over one lakh people which attended the Lalkar Rally against the Akali-BJP government here today.Addressing the rally here today, Congress leaders, who included besides Capt Amarinder Singh, Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Sunil Jakhar, former PCC presidents Mohinder Singh Kaypee and Lal Singh and former union ministers RL Bhatia, Ms Preneet Kaur and Manish Tewari, said that the Congress could not be seen more powerful and more united as it was today with almost each and every party worker and leader from all over the state registering his presence and participation.
Speaking on the occasion, Capt Amarinder declared that it was the beginning of the final and decisive battle against the Akali-BJP regime which will be taken to its logical conclusion in 2017 assembly elections which Congress was certain to win with a thumping majority.He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the people of Punjab for showering so much love and affection on him by participating in the rally in such mammoth numbers.He also lashed out at the Bhartiya Janata Party for its double standards for preaching one thing and practising something else. He pointed out, while the BJP president Amit Shah was claiming to hold a rally against the drugs at Amritsar, his party was supporting the Akalis and its tainted ministers in the Vidhan Sabha.
The former Chief Minister dared Shah, “if you are really sincere about dealing with the problem of drugs, better withdraw your support to the Akalis who are neck deep into drugs”. He pointed out, not only in Punjab, even in Delhi they were aligning with Akalis despite claiming that they were not happy with the alliance.Asserting that the BJP ran away from holding a rally in Amritsar after the Congress announced to hold one the same day, Capt Amarinder had a dig at Amit Shah. He said, while the BJP claimed that the Amritsar rally was postponed because of Shah being busy in Delhi elections, he was actually going around in Bihar. “Their lies have been exposed”, he remarked.Blaming the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for his failure to curb the menace of drugs, he lashed out at the Akalis for promoting and peddling drugs in Punjab. He pointed out, three prominent ministers of the party Bikram Majithia, Avinash Chander and Swaran Singh Philaur had already been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate.
The former Chief Minister said, although the scourge of drugs was the worst problem Punjab faced, there were other issues like unemployment, sliding economy, industrial and agriculture decline that had plagued the state. He regretted that Mr Badal had not learnt any lessons even after being the Chief Minister for five times.Later Capt Amarinder in an informal interaction with the reporters rejected a question suggesting that the Congress was divided in Punjab. “How can you say the Congress is divided when 35 of the 43 MLAs and over 60 ex-MLAs, former PCC presidents and union ministers attended today’s rally?” he asked, while asserting, “Congress was never so much united and strong as it proved to be today”.
Prominent among those present included former union ministers RL Bhatia, Manish Tewari and Ms Preneet Kaur and former PCC presidents Laal Singh, Mohinder Singh Kaypee and Jalandhar MP Chaudhary Santokh, Punjab Youth Congress president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary and Raninder Singh.The 35 MLAs included Sunil Jakhar, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Laal Singh, Preneet Kaur, OP Soni, Sukh Sarkaria , Raj Kumar Verka, Tript Bajwa, Kewal Dhillon, Rana Sodhi, Ashwani Sekhri, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Amrik Singh Dhillon, Aruna Chaudhary, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Charanjit Singh Channi, Gurcharan Singh Boparai, Gur Iqbal Kaur Babli, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Ms Harchand Kaur, Hardayal Singh Kambhoj, Jagmohan Singh, Joginder Singh Panjgraian, Karan Kaur Brar, Mohammad Sadiq, Navtej Singh Cheema, Parminder Singh Pinki, Rainish Kumar Babbi, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sunder Shyam Aroa and Tarlochan Singh Soond. Ramanjit Singh Sikki, who is performing ardas in Darbar Sahib had sent his supporters and best wishes.
The Ex-MLAs: Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, Amarjit Samra, Avatar Henry, Rana KP Singh, Bir Devinder Singh, Jassi Khangura, Charanji Lal Garg, Gurchet Singh Bhullar, Nathu Ram, Mohinder Rinwa, Gurpreet Kangar, Harjinder Thekedar, Harpartap Ajnala, Jagbir Singh Brar, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Kikki Dhillon, Krishan Chand Bains, Love Kumar Goldy, Madan Lal Jalalpur, Makhan Singh, Nirmal Shatrana, Ranjit Chhajjalwadi, Ramesh Dutt Sharma, Roomal Chand, SS Shahbazpuri, Sardool Singh Wadala, Satnam Kainth, Sher Singh Gaggowal, Surjit Singh Dhiman, Sushil Mahajan, Suvinder Kathunangal and Hansraj Jossan, Major Rajbir Singh Ajnala, Jassi Khangura and others.
Others include Yuvraj Raninder Singh, Gurjit Aujla, Sukhpal Bhullar, Lali Majithia, Mahesh Inder Badal, Major Rajbir Singh, Naresh Puri, Ashwani Kumar Pappu, Raj Kumar Chabbewal, Dharamvir Agnihotri, Harminder Singh Gill, Hardev Singh Laadi, Capt Harminder Singh Sultanpur, Maninder Patti, Kaka Lohgarh, Karamjit Singh Rintu, Gurmail Pehalwan, Giri Raj Rajora, Rajinder Beri, Tarsem DC, Shailenderjit Singh Shelley, Joginder Dhingra, Tejinder Bittu, Sonu Dhesi, Dinesh Bassi, Bhupinder Randhawa, Arun Joshi and others.