E-Paper
Maur seat: Dera head’s relative faces opposition within Congress
A day after he was declared the Congress candidate from Maur assembly seat, former MLA Harminder Singh Jassi, who is a relative of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, is facing rebellion from within the party.
A day after he was declared the Congress candidate from Maur, former MLA Harminder Singh Jassi, who is related to Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, is facing rebellion from within the party.
Indicating trouble for Jassi, whose daughter is married to Ram Rahim’s son, two other contenders for the party ticket — Sukhraj Singh Natt and Bhupinder Singh Gora, both Punjab Congress secretaries — have opposed his candidature.
Natt held a meeting with supporters on Friday and urged the Congress high command to have a rethink on its decision. He said Jassi did not belong to Maur and had not even applied for the ticket. His name did not appear in any survey conducted by the party.
Setting a January 15 deadline for the party to change its decision, Natt said he would announce his next course of action at a meeting with supporters on Sunday.
Raising a banner of revolt against Jassi, Gora and his family held a protest at Gurdwara Titarsar Sahib where Jassi went to pay obeisance before launching his campaign. Gora was accompanied by two woman Congress leaders, Jaswinder Kaur, the party’s district vice-president, and Karamjit Kaur, the Maur block president. Both of them later went to attend a meeting called by Natt at his house. Gora has also called a meeting of supporters on January 15.
Natt was denied the Congress ticket in 2007 and had then unsuccessfully contested as an Independent from the erstwhile Joga assembly segment, comprising a major chunk of Maur constituency. He joined the SAD ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls but later returned to the Congress.
