Rewarding party hoppers a wrong practice, says Lakshmi Kanta Chawla

Amritsar, June 18

Taking a potshot at her own party, veteran BJP leader Lakshmi Kanta Chawla without naming anyone today stated that a leader who had lost the elections after defection was made a minister with an important portfolio at the Centre. It was an obvious reference to Ravneet Singh Bittu who was recently made Union Minister of State for Railways and Food Processing Industry after losing the Lok Sabha election from Ludhiana.

The firebrand leader who remained a cabinet minister in the Parkash Singh Badal government from the BJP quota said a large number of defections had taken place in the Lok Sabha election and most of them had lost. Describing defections as a malpractice in democracy, she said ‘the disease of defection’ had spread in the political field, breaking all previous records. She appealed to the people to raise their voice against this practice.

Citing the practice of prior police verification before hiring an employee or keeping a tenant in house, Chawla expressed her disappointment that no one looked at the past records of leaders when they changed party. She stated that it would be good if a similar procedure is introduced in the party. The surprising thing is that a turncoat leader with a criminal image is first welcomed into the party and then with great fanfare, he is made a candidate for the assembly or Lok Sabha elections. A similar thing is going to happen in the Punjab bypoll, she remarked.