Former Jalandhar MP Sushil Rinku targets AAP

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, June 16

As the silent cold war amidst various parties intensifies ahead of the Jalandhar West bypoll, BJP leader and former Jalandhar MP Sushil Rinku has charged the AAP with planning to register cases against associate Sheetal Angural. The posturing has begun even as the parties are yet to announce their candidates.

Goes live on FB

Addressing on FB live a day ago, Sushil Rinku said, “Ever since Sheetal Angural left AAP, continuously something or the other is being heard. We hear that Angural will be booked in cases. As long as he was with AAP, no one said a thing. The day he left AAP, such news has been doing the rounds. We hear when Sheetal Angural will be made the (BJP) candidate, he will be involved in an FIR. If you agree with the government, then there is no case against you. When you leave the government, then they prepare for FIRs. I share this so that in Jalandhar West, everyone may be aware.”

Angural had been in the spotlight recently after repeated suspense over his MLA-ship (being retained or not), from the Jalandhar West seat. Once he exited into the BJP and the AAP finally accepted his suspension, Angural who seems poised to be the BJP candidate from Jalandhar West, has repeatedly been targeting his former party, the AAP.

With Angural and Rinku sharing a public bonhomie ever since the duo’s shift to the BJP, Sushil Rinku has also been going all out to back him. In his latest salvo, a late night FB live, Rinku recently trained his guns against the AAP, asking everyone to refrain from the “politics of vendetta”.

Addressing on FB live a day ago, Rinku said, “Ever since Sheetal left AAP, continuously something or the other is being heard. We hear that Sheetal Angural will be booked in cases. As long as he was with AAP, no one said a thing. The day he left AAP, such news has been doing the rounds. We hear when Sheetal Angural will be made the (BJP) candidate, he will be involved in an FIR. If you agree with the government, then there is no case against you. But when you leave the government, then they prepare for FIRs. I share this so that in Jalandhar West, everyone may be aware.”

Rinku further said: “I request the state DGP, we should not indulge in any vendetta politics. Let people decide who they have to favour.”

FB live has been the favoured medium of the duo to raise pertinent issues during the Lok Sabha poll as well as the upcoming Jalandhar West bypoll, Angural also took to FB days ago to raise questions over the hurry in the announcement of bypoll from Jalandhar West seat.

Right after the Lok Sabha elections had ended, Angural declared that he would continue to be MLA from the Jalandhar West seat. However, days within the declaration, it had been made public by AAP that Angural’s long-pending resignation lying wih the Vidhan Sabha Speaker had been accepted on May 30.

From the AAP, former BJP leader Mohinder Bhagat is the likely candidate from Jalandhar West seat.

While Congress MP from Jalandhar Charanjit Singh Channi had also held a meeting with Leader of Opposition Partap Bajwa in the presence of senior party leadership in the Jalandhar West constituency, the Congress is yet to announce its candidate.