Bathinda, Congress leader and former MP Surinder Singla today said voices within the party to replace Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa were getting louder with each passing day. He claimed a number of senior leaders had conveyed their sentiment to the party high command.
He said he had recently met top party leaders in New Delhi. He refrained from giving details of the meeting, but said: “He (Bajwa) had lost the Lok Sabha election from Gurdaspur by a huge margin of more than 1.36 lakh votes. Besides, the party faced defeat in the Talwandi Sabo byelection where campaigning was organised by him.”
Singla said: “Bajwa is president of the PPCC, but he is not my leader. My leader is Capt Amarinder Singh.”
At a press conference here, he showed a copy of letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking inclusion of Bathinda in the list of 100 cities proposed to be upgraded under a special programme. He asked the Chief Minister to approach Modi and demand a “smart city” status for Bathinda. The press conference underlining Singla’s “love” for Bathinda came on the day when the PPCC chief assigned duties for organisational affairs in all districts in view the municipal poll.
The former minister said: “It was Manpreet who had levied unreasonable taxes and brought the state under huge debt.”