Gosain’s allegation ridiculous: Malik

LUDHIANA: Shwait Malik, a senior BJP leader and member of Rajya Sabha, who was in the city today for the opening of election office of Gurdev Sharma, BJP nominee from Ludhiana Central, termed the allegations levelled by former veteran BJP leader Satpal Gosain, regarding money power being used in the party to get tickets, ridiculous.

Senior BJP leader Shwait Malik in Ludhiana on Saturday. Tribune photo

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 14

Shwait Malik, a senior BJP leader and member of Rajya Sabha, who was in the city today for the opening of election office of Gurdev Sharma, BJP nominee from Ludhiana Central, termed the allegations levelled by former veteran BJP leader Satpal Gosain, regarding money power being used in the party to get tickets, ridiculous.

“This is ridiculous. Why is he saying all this after 45 years? Had he been given the ticket, he would have said ‘party ki jai-jaikar hai’. The BJP is not a branded party of any family. He has been an opportunist and this was proved by his act,” Malik said.

Gosain has time and again been saying that the BJP was giving tickets in lieu of money and that he was denied a ticket because he did not give money. He was upset over giving the ticket to Gurdev Sharma, who incidentally is his distant relative. He had yesterday said: “Paise ka bol bala hai.”

Meanwhile, the social media was buzz after Satpal Gosain joined the Congress. Some posts even speculated that he might re-think his decision. His phone was switched off throughout the day, which further added to the speculations.

Ravinder Arora, district president of the BJP, said: “If anybody wants to come back to the party, the decision will have to be taken by the party high command. We have lost a good leader, but it was Gosain’s own decision. We have heard that his grandson had approached a few party leaders for a comeback, but nobody approached us,” Arora said.

According to the sources, Gosain got a setback when he was not given a warm welcome by his close aides after joining the Congress.

BJP leaders meet Kular

BJP dignitaries from Atam Nagar area held a meeting with Gurmeet Singh Kular (SAD candidate from Atam Nagar) today. Shakti Sharma congratulated Kular on his nomination as SAD-BJP candidate from Atam Nagar. He said booth committees of Atam Nagar would work religiously to make Kular victorious from the constituency.

Kular thanked BJP leaders for their support in the upcoming elections. He said with the joint efforts of SAD-BJP leadership and workers, the alliance government would be repeated for the third time in Punjab with a majority.