Jagraon Cong leaders oppose parachute candidate

Minna Zutshi

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 14

Dissenting notes among the contenders of the Congress ticket gained momentum in Ludhiana today. In the Jagraon Assembly constituency, senior Congress leader Malkiat Singh Dakha, along with his supporters, and other contenders for the party ticket from Jagraon, staged a protest today. Dakha said they had conveyed their sentiments to the high command. “We’ll wait till tomorrow evening. If the allotment of ticket to outsider Geja Ram is not reconsidered, we’ll chalk out our further course of action.”

Dakha, while talking to The Tribune, claimed that Geja Ram was a parachute candidate. “At least someone from Jagraon should have been allotted ticket.” His supporters charged the party leadership with foisting “outsiders” on Jagraon. “In the past Assembly elections also, this tendency was noticed. The Congress has had to pay heavily for this in the elections,” said a supporter. Other ticket contenders, including Avtar Singh Billa, also expressed their unhappiness at the candidature of Geja Ram.

Meanwhile, Geja Ram, who visited Jagraon today, claimed that it was wrong to call him a “parachute candidate”. He said he had spent some years in Jagraon. So, Jagraon was not an unfamiliar town for him. Geja Ram said he had sought ticket from Bassi Pathana. “Allotting me the ticket from Jagraon is the decision of the party high command and I respect it. I started my poll campaign in the constituency from today.”

Sahnewal leaders write to Sonia

Meanwhile, in the Sahnewal Assembly constituency, the contenders for the Congress ticket shot off a letter to Sonia Gandhi, urging her to reconsider the allotment of ticket to Satwinder Kaur Bitti.

The letter, signed by Jaswinder Singh Baliawal and six others, says: “Being an outsider she (Bitti) has no base. ….It is requested to allot ticket to a popular local candidate. If not, then we will be forced to take an unwanted decision which will not be in favour of the party.”