Amritsar, November 5
Pledging to fight tooth and nail to get genuine party workers justice, Mr Jagmeet Singh Brar, vice-president, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and member, coordination committee, announced that the ticket for the forthcoming Assembly elections should be purely on merit and kith and kin of senior leaders should be ignored. He added that this formula should also be applied to party president Amarinder Singh whose wife is Member of Parliament from Patiala.

The Congress leader who stole the show at the rally held here today disclosed that the party high command was against projecting Mr Amarinder Singh as future Chief Minister. Mr Brar who had recently sunk differences with the PPCC chief stated that the party high command had told him that “it should be the prerogative of the newly-elected MLAs to elect the party leader after elections”.

Another point which may directly hit the leadership of Mr Amarinder Singh is that Mr Brar said that before allocating the party ticket, the high command must confirm whether the person had fought against terrorism during the turbulent days. It should be ascertained whether anybody who was seeking party ticket was directly or indirectly involved in funding or providing shelter to militants. “The days of terrorism should be the test case”, he said.

He, however, was in favour of considering of the candidature of Mr Maheshinder Singh Badal, cousin of Mr Parkash Singh Badal from the Lambi constituency from where the Chief Minister had won the last election.

He said the Pachmarhi resolution should not come in the way of allocating tickets to the persons like Mr Maheshinder Singh Badal. It was a ‘special case’ as he had the potential of defeating the Chief Minister.

He said it was a matter of concern that many influential persons who had made no contribution to the party had been claiming that they had the party ticket in their pockets. “No sister, brother or mother of the leaders who had already got the ticket should be considered for the candidature,” he announced.

When asked why the party high command had opposed the projection of Mr Amarinder Singh as Chief Minister, Mr Brar said that there were three aspirants for the coveted post. However, two of them had suffered a humiliating defeat during the election and the third won by a thin margin of 700 votes.

Mr Brar said that though the public mood was to rout the ruling SAD-BJP, yet it was an upheaval task to match the campaigning skill of Mr Badal who knew the skills of changing the wave. He said as of today, the Congress was set to sweep the Assembly with a comfortable margin. However, any complacency could prove otherwise. “We must not waste even a single way as our opponent is very clever and could go to any extent to buy the votes”, he cautioned.

Mr Brar said the forthcoming Assembly elections will not be a cakewalk for the Congress.

To a question, Mr Brar said that he was ready to contest the forthcoming election if directed by the party high command. This gave a clear indication that Mr Brar is an aspirant for the post of Chief Minister. The other aspirants are the PPCC chief, Ms Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Mr Harcharan Singh Brar.

While Mr Amarinder Singh has always evaded the question on declaration of the property by Congress leaders, Mr Brar said that if the Congress was votged to power, every MLA, Member of Parliament, minister and chief minister would be asked to declare all movable and immovable assets.

Criticising the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, Mr Brar alleged that seven police stations in Faridkot division were illuminated in one day when Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, general secretary, SAD, was blessed with a son. He said such acts of sycophancy should be curbed.

On the torching of the volumes of the holy Guru Granth Sahib, Mr Brar said that such incidents of sacrilege had occurred during the SAD rule and the Akali government own responsibility and take steps so that such incidents did not recur.

The rally was addressed by such stalwarts as Mr Moti Lal Vohra, general secretary, All-India Congress Committee (AICC), Capt Amarinder Singh, president, PPCC, and Mr Shiv Lal Balmiki, AICC general secretary etc. However, dissident Congress leader Jagmeet Brar stole the show from party president Amarinder Singh.

Mr Vohra pointed to the dismal performance of the BJP in the last Assembly elections where the Congress won in three out of five states. He said the anti-incumbency wave has gripped all five states, namely Punjab, Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Uttar Pradesh where the BJP is currently ruling. Hence the Congress now is a viable alternative.