Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
* Punjab Congress to launch Padyatra against Badal government from September
Chandigarh, May 22: The Punjab Congress President Mr Partap Singh Bajwa today announced that the party would launch a massive political offensive against the ruling Akali Dal in Punjab from June 1 with culminating in 1,000-km “padyatra”.
He said: “We will launch a public connect programme in the state from June 1. The idea is to apprise the masses of mass accumulation of disproportionate assets by the ruling Badal family, rampant conflict of interests between the family and their relatives, mounting farm distress and concerns over the safety of women, especially Dalits.”
The mass contact programme would be followed by a 1000-km “padyatra” across the state to mobilise support against the incumbent government and capture the space of “the most viable political alternative ahead of the 2017 state elections”, which it had lost to AAP in the Lok Sabha elections.
“We pledge to make the state Badal-mukt. That will be our clarion call when we meet people and later when we hold our ‘padyatra’ during which we propose to cover border districts in the first leg and districts along the national highway in the later part,” he added.
The mass contact would start from 35 reserved Assembly segments in line with Congress’ strategy to win back the Dalit vote bank and considering the fact that the victims of the recent molestation cases in the state (Moga and then Muktsar) were all Dalits.
He said the party would also celebrate 125th birth anniversary year of Babasaheb BR Ambedkar this year. Punjab was home home to the highest percentage of Dalit population of 33 per cent.
He announced while the party would reach out to the people during mass contact programme covering major segments in Majha, Doaba and Malwa, the first leg of the “padyatra” proposed in the later part of the year would cover Pathankot, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Bathinda, Sangrur, Patiala, Chandigarh, Ropar, Hoshiarpur and back to Pathankot.
He disclosed the party was also planning to move Supreme Court against the Badals. “We are planning to move the Supreme Court against disproportionate assets acquired by the Badals and the way they are granting favours to family members by allotting them lucrative tenders,” Mr Bajwa alleged.
