Crorepati candidate & betrayal, Angural, Bhagat trade charges

Jalandhar, June 17

After the AAP and BJP announced their candidates for the Jalandhar West Assembly bypoll, Mahinder Bhagat and Sheetal Angural launched an attack on each other on Monday. While Angural termed Bhagat a “crorepati” candidate, Bhagat in turn questioned Angural’s authority to contest again as he had previously ‘betrayed’ people’s trust by resigning as Jalandhar West MLA.

Speaking to the media, Angural said: “The AAP announced Mahinder Bhagat as its candidate. Where are its grassroots workers and ground-level people to whom it wanted to give tickets? Now, the party has selected a crorepati (millionaire) candidate”.

Reiterating Sushil Rinku’s charge that AAP was planning some action against him, Angural said, “Conspiracies are being hatched against me. My family is being threatened.”

Meanwhile, Mahinder Bhagat, while speaking on Angural’s candidature, said, “I heard he is being fielded by the BJP. I am surprised that a person who resigned after two years as an MLA, and betrayed people’s trust is now again contesting from the Assembly seat. He was already elected. Why didn’t he do his duty? People know the credibility of candidates, they know they are not reliable, they will judge on behaviour. I don’t care about other people. We did ‘sewa’ (service) and will continue to do so. People are fed up of old and want to bring in new.”

Targeting gambling and illegal trade in Jalandhar West, Bhagat said, “It seems all the vices of Jalandhar city have come to Jalandhar West (constituency). Like a home, where the family head is responsible for what happens, the responsibility for social ills lies with society’s leaders, that they should prevent the vices from creeping in. In Jalandhar West, the representatives in the last seven years —- compared to previous governments —- have allowed drugs and other vices. We will improve the scenario and work on it.”