Punjab Congress leaders taken into custody for protesting at CM’s residence

PPCC chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, former deputy CMs OP Soni and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa were among leaders taken away by Chandigarh Police

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, former deputy CMs OP Soni and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa were among the Congress leaders taken into custody by Chandigarh Police after they started an impromptu dharna at chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence when he refused to meet them on Thursday afternoon.

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and former deputy CMs OP Soni and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa holding a dharna at the chief minister’s residence in Chandigarh on Thursday. They were later taken into custody by Chandigarh Police. (HT Photo)

The Congress leaders led by Warring had gone to the chief minister’s residence to lodge their protest against the deteriorating law and order and the arrest of their party colleague and former minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot besides the naming of another former minister, Sangat Singh Gilzian, in a corruption case.

Warring, Bajwa and the others were let inside the CM’s residence, but they could not meet Mann so they sat on dharna, raising slogans against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

Warring said that they had come with appointment, but the chief minister refused to meet them. “We were all made to wait outside for 45 minutes or so, and then made to wait in the conference room only to be told that the CM is busy and will meet us at 1pm on Friday. We have decided to sit here till tomorrow,” the PPCC chief said.

Bajwa accused the AAP government of insulting the elected representatives and other senior leaders by frisking them. “I have never faced anything like this. They talked of badlav (bringing change). Is this the badlav they promised to usher in?” the leader of opposition said.

Besides former deputy chief ministers Soni and Randhawa, former speaker Rana KP Singh, ex-ministers Brahm Mohindra and Gurkirat Singh Kotli and several other present and former MLAs were among those present.

Reacting to the protest, Delhi-based Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha tweeted: “A farcical theatre of absurdity is on display by Punjab Congress, as they staged a protest in support of misdeeds of their corrupt ministers. Suddenly, they all have gone restive as skeletons have started to tumble out of the closet. It seems corruption is in the very DNA of Cong.”