Sign in

Bajwa takes on Badals in their backyard

Punjab state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday was at his vituperative best as he slammed the ruling Badals during a dharna here. Talking to HT before addressing the gathering, Bajwa said, "I am after the Badals and this is the reason that they are after me."

Updated on: Nov 28, 2013, 20:05:13 IST
Hindustan Times | By , Bathinda
Share
Share via
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
Copy link
  • copy link

Punjab state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday was at his vituperative best as he slammed the ruling Badals during a dharna here.

HT Image
HT Image


Talking to HT before addressing the gathering, Bajwa said, "I am after the Badals and this is the reason that they are after me."

"I have a mission to expose the Badal family and this is the reason I have especially come to Bathinda to hold the dharna by taking a day off from the Delhi assembly elections campaign," said Bajwa, who reached Bathinda by train in the wee hours of Thursday.

Bajwa said, "I have been regularly briefing the union home and environment ministers about the role of the Badal and Majithia families in the recently exposed drug haul case and the mining scam, respectively. Badals' ill-deeds were never reported to the Centre before in an organised way. In case a central agency probes these scams everyone, right from the ground-level workers to Bikramjit Majithia and Sukhbir Badal, would be booked."

He said, "I was singled out by the Badals in the shamlat land row as they know that I am after them. So they are after me now. But it will not help the Badal family."

On the Congress' plans for the Bathinda parliamentary seat, Bajwa said, "Our negotiation with Manpreet Badal for the seat is on. We are positive about the alliance. I know people are fed up with Badals in Malwa, so we are committed to fielding our best candidate against Harsimrat Badal."

Striking a chord with the gathering, Bajwa said, "I have organised the dharna here as this is the region that the Badal family claims to have developed. I want to expose them. I challenge Parkash Singh Badal to swear that Sukhbir is not linked to drug peddler Jagdish Bhola; if he does so, I would resign from party president's post."

Will not allow Modi to enter Punjab

Bajwa said the Congress would not allow BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to enter Punjab on the issue of displacement of Punjabi farmers in Gujarat. "It is a shame that the Punjab chief minister had called Modi 'Sardar' during his visit to Gujarat. But we will not allow Modi to attend the Moga rally on December 21," said Bajwa, though he did not spell out as to how they would stop Modi.