Cong sees revolt from two leaders

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 17

After being denied the ticket in the Assembly elections, the Congress today saw revolt from its two leaders. Its young leader Mandeep Singh Manna today filed his nomination papers as an Independent from the Amritsar East constituency against official candidate Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Maninder Singh Palasaur also announced to file his papers as an Independent from the Amritsar South Assembly segment.Manna termed Sidhu an outsider who was parachuted at the cost of local leaders who have been nursing the constituency for long.

He accused Sidhu of being greedy and selfish, who no longer enjoy the support of the public. “No longer people repose trust in Sidhu,” he said. Manna said Navjot Sidhu had again jumped in the electoral fray to realise his selfish aspiration of becoming a deputy chief minister.

He said Sidhu had been flaying the policies of the Congress as a BJP MP for over 10 years and now, all of a sudden he started liking its every aspect. He changed his viewpoint to satisfy his selfish interests.

Manna claimed that neither Sidhu nor his wife Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu like to mingle with the public. Sidhu was in the habit of flying out of the city after winning the elections. He recalled that once Congress leaders had splashed posters of Sidhu missing from the Amritsar Lok Sabha segment.He questioned that, “how can those Congress leaders now extend support to him.”

He claimed that no Congress leader was supporting Sidhu from heart and it was a mere pretension to carry out diktats of the party high command, which was far removed from the ground reality. Manna said Congress workers and party sympathisers from the constituency would support him.

He refused to take security guards, citing that he was against the VIP culture.