Din over, Time to fold hands after the wave

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 17

Rain and thundershowers failed to dampen the spirits of Congress candidate Ravneet Singh Bittu and his supporters, who took out a roadshow in the city today.

Bittu ended campaigning today and made sure to pay a visit to most areas.

Bittu said the morale of the Congress camp was elevated after Rahul Gandhi’s visit.

Attacking his opponents, he said neither any senior leader from the BJP came to support Maheshinder Singh Grewal nor for Simarjit Singh Bains. “This shows that they have already accepted their defeat,” he said.

When asked about the BJP not getting permission for holding rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and blaming the state government for it, Bittu said, “Who can stop Modi from holding a rally. All these allegations are false and the truth is that the BJP and Akali Dal knew that people would not turn up for the rally in large numbers. That was the real reason behind cancelling Modi’s rally. They should have invited any other senior leader. For Bains, Mayawati didn’t come to campaign for him or support him.”

Further, he said Rahul Gandhi had great plans for Ludhiana’s MSME industry and he would be executing these once the Congress comes to power.

“He talked about the MSME industry and knew facts about it, which even we were unaware of. He wants to take MSEM industry to another level,” Bittu said.

He appealed to the people to elect him with a big margin again so that he could continue the development works for Ludhiana.

The respective MLAs of the constituencies and the area councillors received the roadshow in their areas and accompanied it till it crossed to other areas.

The roadshow started from Kailash Chowk in the Ludhiana North constituency where MLA Rakesh Pandey and his son Dushyant Pandey, along with their supporters accompanied Bittu.

The roadshow covered Pritam Dhaba Chowk, Domoria Pull, Kapoor Chowk, GT Road, Peeru Banda Chowk, Salem Tabri, 30 Foota Road, Jalandhar Bypass, Bhorra, Aman Nagar, Bharti Colony and North constituency. Holding party flags and Bittu’s cut-outs, people raised slogans in his favour.

In the Ludhiana East constituency, MLA Sanjay Talwar and several other Congress leaders and workers welcomed Bittu and the roadshow passed through Bahadurke Road, Azad Nagar, Hambran Road, Noorwala Road, Kaali Sadak, Shivpuri, Kailash Nagar, Basti Jodhewal, Tibba Road, Rahon Road and Samrala Chowk.

After that, the roadshow was welcomed at Transport Nagar falling under the Central constituency represented by MLA Surinder Dawar. From there the procession reached Atam Nagar constituency and passed through Model Town, Dugri Canal, CRPF Colony, Urban Estate Phase I, Phase, II, Urban Vihar, Janta Nagar, Gill Road.

Traffic snarls

People had to face a difficult time due to traffic congestion caused by roadshows. “Finally, the campaigning will be over and all this will come to an end today. Campaigning in Punjab has been very long as elections were in the last phase,” a commuter said.

Bittu campaigns at Jagraon

Congress candidate Ravneet Singh Bittu conducted a door-to-door contact programme with voters of Jagraon. Bittu, along with other party leaders and supporters, approached Jagraon residents and shopkeepers in the walled areas of the town. Before that, Bittu took out a roadshow at Jagraon.

Wife does her part 

Congress candidate MP Ravneet Bittu’s wife Anupama Jhajj held door-to-door campaigning in Ward Number 57 and 70 in the Ludhiana Central and West Assembly constituencies today. Appealing to vote for the Congress, she apprised the people of the complete failure of the Modi government, saying that it had failed to fulfil any of the promises made during the 2014 elections and badly affected every section of society.