Gosain takes yet another about-turn

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, January 15

A veteran BJP leader, three times MLA, former cabinet minister and former Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Assembly Satpal Gosain today took yet another about turn. He denied that he had ever quit the BJP and joined the Congress. He reiterated his allegiance to the party in the presence of state president and Union Minister of State Vijay Sampla in the party office here.

Rumours were agog on the social media the whole day on Saturday that Gosain was having second thoughts on his decision to join the Congress and rebellion against the BJP leadership over denial of party ticket to him or any of his family members from the Ludhiana-Central Assembly segment. Gosain had also made a statement on a local TV channel that he was still with the BJP and had blamed the media for misquoting him and misreporting about his joining the Congress.

State party chief Vijay Sampla, along with other party leaders, went to Gosain’s residence in Kidwai Nagar this afternoon and held a closed-door meeting with the discordant leader.

Later, a smiling Gosain and Sampla, along with district president Ravinder Arora, party candidate from Ludhiana-Central Gurdev Sharma Debi and party spokesperson Amit Gosain (grand son of Sat Pal Goosain) came to the party office and posed for a photo to show that all was well within the party.

Unperturbed over his changing stand during the past three days, Gosain rather blamed the print and electronic media for creating the controversy. He said he did meet PPCC president Amarinder Singh in Chandigarh but never joined the Congress. “Nor did I ever said that I had quit the BJP over distribution of party ticket,” he said while also alleging that he had been misquoted on allegations that money had been demanded from him in lieu of party ticket from the Ludhiana Central segment.

During his meeting with Capt Amarinder Singh in Chandigarh, Gosain had openly said that Rs 15 lakh were demanded from him for party ticket and had also commented that “party mein paise ka bol bala hai” (Money reigns supreme in the party).

Talking to The Tribune, Sampla also made similar observations. He said Gosain had not quit the BJPContinued on page 2