April 15, 2015 by admin

No individual should be blamed for Congress rout in Dhuri bypoll: Bajwa

Chandigarh, Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa today maintained that no individual could be held responsible for the outcome of the Dhuri Assembly bye-election as the victory or defeat was a collective process. However, at the same time, he slammed Arvind Khanna for “backstabbing the Congress” saying he was in league with the Akali Dal. It may be mentioned that it was Khanna’s resignation, a Congress MLA related to former chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, that necessitated the bye-election. He is also known for his close association with Deputy Chief Minister with Sukhbir Singh Badal. The Akali Dal candidate Gobind Singh Longowal won this crucial election with a huge margin getting 67596 votes as against his nearest rival Simar Partap Singh Barnala of the Congress who could manage only 30095 votes. Other candidates included Surjit Singh Kalabula from Akali Dal (Mann) whose score was 7554 votes while Sukhdev Ram Sharma of the CPI was fourth with 1933 votes. Barnala, grandson of former Akali chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala, was inducted into the Congress at the last moment. Talking to the media persons, Bajwa attributed the huge margin to misuse of official machinery and money power by the ruling Akali Dal. At the same time, he said there was a big communication gap between the Congress cadre and Barnalas. The Congress entered the field as a disjointed and faction ridden party which has refused to learn any lesson from the successive defeats since 2007.