M A I N   N E W S

Parties use Maghi stage to target rivals
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 14
The Congress rally at the Maghi Mela came as a big morale booster for the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa, who got unflinching support from the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) on his demand for a CBI inquiry into the alleged association of Akali leaders with drug lord Jagdish Bhola.

Though senior party leaders, including Capt Amarinder Singh and local ex-MP Jagmeet Singh Brar, stayed away from the rally, AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmed made the day for Bajwa by asserting that the CBI demand to expose the politico-criminal nexus in nefarious activities was fully justified.

Buoyed by the support from the party high command, Bajwa opened an attack on Akali leaders at the rally. He said he was prepared for a big battle against SAD leaders. At the same time, he said black sheep within the Congress were spoiling the fight against the SAD-BJP government.

Meanwhile, the ruling SAD-BJP alliance, which held a political conference today, targeted Bajwa for his alleged links with arrested drug lord Jagdish “Bhola” and termed him the “biggest smuggler”. Senior SAD, BJP leaders did not even refrain from saying that days of Bajwa were numbered as the PPCC president.

Manpreet Singh Badal’s Peoples’ Party of Punjab (PPP) and its allies such as the CPI, the CPM put up an impressive show at the mela, thus giving a message to other political parties that it would be a mistake to consider the PPP a spent force.