Cong protest on rising prices draws a blank in Jalandhar

Jalandhar, March 31

The impact of downfall of the Congress in the recently concluded elections showed in their protest organised by its district unit against the rising prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and other consumables on Thursday, where the party leaders failed to draw a good gathering.

Neither of the two city MLAs Pargat Singh and Bawa Henry joined the protest. Even ex-MLAs Rajinder Beri and Sushil Rinku did not turn up. Of the 65 councillors that the party has, just about seven reached the Congress Bhawan — Mayor Jagdish Raja, Mahila Congress chief and councillor Jasleen Sethi, Tarsem Lakhotra, Jagdish Samrai, Mandeep Jassal, Pawan Kumar and Prabh Dayal.

Since the attendance remained low, they largely confined the protest to within the Congress Bhawan, which has never been the case since the past five years. Though they brought along LPG cylinder and banged thalis (platters), they chose not to even go to the Deputy Commissioner’s office for giving a memorandum or burn any effigy.

DCC (urban) chief Balraj Thakur and DCC (rural) chief Darshan Singh Tahli had organised the protest. On less turnout, Thakur said: “From my side, I had extended invitation to all MLAs and councillors to join the protest. They must have got busy somewhere. In any case, we are going to organise a bigger event on Saturday when we all will sit on a dharna in front of DC office on Saturday. That day, I am expecting a better attendance.”