Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
GURDASPUR, September 27: Irrigation and Power Minister Rana Gurjeet Singh today questioned Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s moral authority to dub Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar as an outsider in Gurdaspur, when he had himself contested from Jalalabad in Ferozepur district despite himself belonging to Lambi in Muktsar district.
Replying to a question during an informal conversation with reporters after addressing a series of public meetings in support of Jakhar here today, Rana said, the Akali-BJP alliance was deliberately trying to make an issue out of a non-issue since they had nothing else against the Congress candidate.
The Congress leader said, the BJP candidate Swaran Salaria stood no comparison to Jakhar. “In fact it will be an insult to Jakhar if he is compared with Salaria”, he remarked while pointing out, “while Jakhar has spent his entire life in public service, Salaria has just para-dropped and had not a single day of public service to his credit”.
The irrigation and power minister asserted that the Congress government under the leadership of the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had put Punjab back on track. “The Akalis had pushed back Punjab by years and other than looting and robbing the state they did nothing else”, he said, while urging people to give some time more to the new government.
Appealing to the people of Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts to vote in favour of Jakhar, Rana said, they will be privileged to have a representative like him (Jakhar) in the parliament as he had already proved his credentials beyond any doubt in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. “Such opportunities do not come very often that an articulate orator is going to represent you in the parliament”, he told people while urging them to ensure a landslide victory for the Congress candidate.
