Mounting a strong offensive against his rivals on Sunday, Punjab Congress chief Parrtap Singh Bajwa, who is seeking re-election from Gurdaspur, said that while his BJP opponent Vinod Khanna was a "paratrooper without a permanent local address" despite having represented this seat thrice earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAM) candidate Sucha Singh Chhotepur was a "rank opportunist who was aspiring to join the Congress till the last".
Addressing a series of public meetings in Sujanpur assembly segment of Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency, he said Khanna did not even have his vote here. "How can such a man be involved with the problems and issues concerning the people who has no permanent address here and just vanished from the scene after having been vanquished, to return only when paradropped by his party again", he asked.
Lambasting Chhotepur, the PPCC chief said this man had "no love lost for any party and he had been changing colours suiting to his whims and fancies and personal interests".
He further said, "Chhotepur started his career with the Akali Dal and changed his party almost every day. He was now seeking to join the Congress till he was sounded by the AAP to contest on that party's ticket. He did not even have any inkling that he was the likely choice of AAP".
Bajwa said the 2014 Lok Sabha election was not any ordinary election as it would decide the future of this country and destiny of the people as it was a clash between "two diametrically opposite ideologies with the Congress representing secular and inclusive approach against the exclusiveness and communalism of the BJP which thrives on Hindutva as evident from the manifesto of this party which talked of uniform civil code and other sectarian issues".
"I am surprised how come the Akali leaders are maintaining silence on the issue of uniform civil code as this party had been demanding separate civil code for years", he added.
Bajwa said the 2014 Lok Sabha election was not any ordinary election as it would decide the future of this country and destiny of the people as it was a clash between "two diametrically opposite ideologies with the Congress representing secular and inclusive approach against the exclusiveness and communalism of the BJP which thrives on Hindutva as evident from the manifesto of this party which talked of uniform civil code and other sectarian issues".
"I am surprised how come the Akali leaders are maintaining silence on the issue of uniform civil code as this party had been demanding separate civil code for years", he added.
He rubbished the Akali Dal-BJP propaganda that the one-rank-one-pension announcement had not been given the practical shape. He said the notification for its implementation from April 1 had already been issued and the opposition should not mislead the people on such issues.
Bajwa addressed rallies at Ajijpur, Sujanpur, Kaleri, Hariyal, and Dunera. Bajwa inaugurated the Congress election office at Sujanpur where Vinay Mahajan, Thakur Rajbir Singh, Anil Dutta, Satnam Singh Bitta, Thakur Chamel Singh, Som Raj Sarpanch, Suresh Kumar Raju, Salabh Singh Sabha were present.