AAP alliance, Sidhu factor weigh on Gurdaspur Congress leaders’ mind

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, January 19

Senior Gurdaspur Congress leaders maintain that their party is hard pressed to commence its campaign for this parliamentary seat until some clarity emerges on the issue of the party joining hands with the AAP even as rival parties are moving full throttle ahead.

Cong yet to hold a single rally

To the Congress’ surprise, the BJP has already started its crusade with senior leaders like Amit Shah, Meenakshi Lekhi, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Vijay Rupani having addressed rallies. On Monday, PM Narendra Modi held a video-conference with Gurdaspur farmers. For AAP, Arvind Kejriwal and CM Bhagwant Mann have held a rally where a development package worth Rs 1,854 crore was announced for the area. But the Congress has not held even a single rally.

Partap Singh Bajwa, Leader of Opposition, said, “The logistics of campaigning can be worked out only after we know whether we have AAP as our ally or our rival.” He is the sitting MLA from Qadian and has also remained an MP from the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat. “Partap has been in active politics for the last four decades. It will be imperative for the party to seek his views regarding the pros and cons of such an alliance. His experience and expertise simply cannot be ignored,” said an ex-minister.

The Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency is seen as a BJP stronghold with the party winning five of the last seven elections.

Much to the chagrin of the Congress, the BJP has already started its crusade with senior leaders like Amit Shah, Meenakshi Lekhi, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Vijay Rupani having addressed rallies. On Monday, PM Narendra Modi held a video-conference with Gurdaspur farmers. For AAP, Arvind Kejriwal and CM Bhagwant Mann have held a rally where a development package worth Rs 1,854 crore was announced for the area.

In contrast, the Congress has not held even a single rally.

The Congress is ruling the roost in six out of the total nine Assembly segments of this Lok Sabha seat. The party’s star campaigners are Partap Bajwa, ex-Dy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, ex-ministers Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Aruna Chaudhury, sitting MLA Naresh Puri and ex-MLA Amit Vij.

However, none of them have made their presence felt yet.

The three main civic bodies of Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat —- Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Batala —-are all controlled by the Congress. Municipal councillors, however, are averse to asking for votes because they say there is no leader whose guidelines they can follow.

Political observers say yet another issue on which the party is awaiting transparency not only on the Gurdaspur seat but on all the remaining 12 seats is the Sidhu factor. “We have reports from Ground Zero that say a majority of senior leaders will keep away from campaigning if he is retained in the party,” said a Delhi-based leader. Senior Congressmen say it will be good riddance if the high command expels Sidhu “because of the fact that he pulled the party down from 78 to 18 seats.”