Jalandhar West bypoll: Political battle heats up

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, July 1

The political battle for the Jalandhar West Assembly bypoll intensified after a series of allegations and counter-allegations being levelled between AAP and BJP leaders here.

An open tussle had already been going on between the two parties since the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections after former MP Sushil Rinku and ex-MLA Sheetal Angural had quit AAP to join the BJP. It got reignited on Saturday after AAP spokesperson Malwinder Kang alleged that Sheetal Angural was extorting money even from an ice-cream vendor. After this, both sides released audios questioning the morality of the candidates.

AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat has even lodged a complaint in this regard with the city police terming the audio fake.

The matter reached the next level today after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann got some major joinings done in the party, all of whom were from the BJP. Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia, who was with the SAD till a year and a half ago, later switched to AAP and then moved to the BJP, joined the AAP again today.

Former Deputy Mayor Parvesh Tangri, who too has been shifting parties, joined the AAP today. Councillors Jagdish Samrai and Raj Kumar Raju and Dalit leader Vijay Danav also joined the AAP.

Since Bhatia, Tangri and Samrai were earlier with the BJP, this annoyed Angural much and he chose to go live on Facebook for 35 minutes.

Angural, who seemed to be anguished, repeatedly challenged the Punjab Chief Minister, saying he should take action

against the leaders for indulging in corruption or else he would release their audio proofs on June 5. Angural released some clips even today to prove that he was in possession of some ammunition against the AAP.

Angural said if his allegations proved wrong, he could be put behind bars. He was not bothered about the outcome of the polls. He even said he was unfazed by his councillors being taken away.