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Sangrur LS bypoll: Party leaders make final pitch as campaign ends
Curtains came down on the high-pitched campaign for the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll on Tuesday evening with senior leaders of all parties making a final effort to woo the voters
Curtains came down on the high-pitched campaign for the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll on Tuesday evening with senior leaders of all parties making a final effort to woo the voters.
On the final day, chief minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s state unit chief Ashwani Sharma and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) supremo Sukhbir Singh Badal campaigned for their respective candidates across various towns and villages in the constituency, which goes to the polls on Thursday. SAD (Amritsar) president and candidate Simranjit Singh Mann also held a road show.
Will make every village beautiful: Mann
Bhagwant Mann, who along with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Gurmail Singh, held a road show from Bhawanigarh to Dhuri, covering several villages and towns, said: “The AAP government will make every village in Sangrur so beautiful that people from all over the country will come here to get photographed.”
The chief minister (CM) also promised to open “India’s best medical college” in Sangrur “very soon” besides making efforts to bring farmers out of debt and turning agriculture into a “profitable business”.
‘Avenge Moose Wala’s killing with votes’
Warring, while campaigning for Congress candidate Dalvir Singh Goldy, said it was time to avenge singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s killing through ballot. He said voters in Sangrur have a “golden chance” to teach a lesson to the AAP government “for all its failures of omission and commission”.
Taking a dig at Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for seeking more time for the AAP to fulfill pre-poll promises, the Punjab Congress chief said: “What do you need time for? To get people killed at the hands of gangsters or to push Punjab into communal riots?”
BJP takes credit for arrest of shooters
Giving the credit for the arrest of two shooters in Moose Wala case to the BJP-led Union government, the party’s state unit chief Ashwani Sharma on Tuesday slammed the Punjab government and police for their “failure” to nab the singer’s assailants.
Sharma, who was speaking to media persons while canvassing for party candidate Kewal Singh Dhillon, alleged that earlier the Punjab Police had failed to act on inputs of central intelligence agencies about threat to the singer’s life and then failed to arrest his shooters. The Delhi Police — which comes under the Centre’s jurisdiction — on Monday claimed to have made a big breakthrough with the arrest of two shooters, including a module head.
Release of Sikh prisoners sole agenda: Sukhbir
SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday reiterated that the party is contesting the bypoll on sole agenda of securing release of Sikh prisoners and is ready to withdraw from the fray even at this juncture if the Centre accedes to this demand.
“We have chosen to focus on the inhuman treatment being meted out to the Sikh prisoners by fielding a member from their families and hope this election will finally secure justice for them and end their suffering,” Sukhbir said while addressing a public meeting in Lehra segment in favour of party candidate Kamaldeep Kaur, who is the foster sister of death row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana.
Simranjit Mann files complaint with electoral officer
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president and candidate Simranjit Singh Mann on Tuesday lodged a complaint before the Punjab chief electoral officer (CEO), alleging that officials of rural development and panchayats department were pressuring the local staff to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominee in the Sangrur Lok Sabha byelection on June 23.
Advocate Simranjit Singh, representing Mann’s party, in the complaint to CEO S Karuna Raju, also alleged that officers of the state vigilance bureau were threatening sarpanches and panches to vote for the AAP. Raju is reported to have spoken to the deputy commissioners of Sangrur, Barnala and Malerkotla districts, directing them to look into the matter and sumbit a report.
