Punjab Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today said Punjab Congress leader Capt Amarinder Singh was being led to the sacrificial altar by Punjab Pradesh Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa who had conspired to get him and other senior leaders fielded from the State after being forced to contest from Gurdaspur."Mark my words. Partap Bajwa is the PCC President and he would never digest Capt Singh being victorious from Amritsar. Amarinder's campaign is destined to be sabotaged from within by Bajwa which will ensure his rout", Mr Sukhbir Badal asserted in a press statement released here.Explaining his views, he said "Bajwa became jittery after being forced to fight from Gurdaspur and mooted the idea of fielding all the supposed heavy weights of the party. The purpose was to guard his flanks as he knows he will lose the election. He did not want to lose his PCC Presidentship and that is why he conspired to make all the senior leaders fight the elections", Mr Badal added.
The SAD President said it was not only Bajwa who wanted to ensure Capt Singh's defeat. "Even the Congress rank and file want to teach him a lesson for leading the Punjab Congress to two successive assembly defeats. The Congress worker can never forget the arrogance displayed by Capt Singh during the run up to the last assembly elections and is waiting to teach him a lesson for remaining inaccessible to the ordinary worker and relying on a coterie which included people who shared the same royal lifestyle and had nothing to do with the people or politics".Mr Sukhbir Badal said last but not the least, even people who had collected at Amritsar yesterday to allegedly welcome Capt Singh to Amritsar would not be seen again. "More than eighty per cent of the crowd had been hired on daily wages and consisted of outsiders, people who did not even have their vote in Amritsar".
The SAD President said Capt Singh was in the habit of conducted such fake shows. "He did it earlier when he was re nominated as Pradesh Congress President in the run up to the last assembly elections. "Like this time, he hired a crowd to welcome him to his visit at Amritsar to show the high command that the people of the State were with him. Even this time he has done the same to "prove" his popularity before the party high command. The Congress central leadership may be fooled by such tactics but Capt Singh has been thoroughly exposed before the people of Punjab and they will teach him an appropriate lesson in the forthcoming parliamentary elections", he added.Urging the people of Amritsar to end Capt Singh's career once and for all, Mr Badal said the Congress leader had earlier been snubbed in Bathinda when he tried to come out of his Patiala assembly segment. "Now after he will be routed in Amritsar he will be unable to contest an election from anywhere in Punjab", he added.