AAP legislators stay away from Sidhu Moosewala's cremation, Opposition trains guns

Mansa, May 31

While leaders of Opposition parties visited Sidhu Moosewala’s residence and attended his cremation, AAP MLAs chose to stay away, giving ammo to the Congress to hit out at the ruling party leadership.

CM insensitive

Shame on insensitivity of CM Mann that he had no time to offer condolences to the singer’s parents at cremation. — Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, PCC Chief

Avoided owing to youths

We chose not to come owing to the presence of a large number of youngsters. — Gurpreet Singh Banawali, Sardulgarh MLA

Senior Congress leaders, including state incharge Harish Chaudhary, PCC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Kulbir Singh Zira and others attended the funeral. Most of them, including Warring, were seen alongside Moosewala’s family on the tractor-trailer during the funeral procession.

Senior SAD leader Sikander Singh Maluka met the family, while SAD (A) chief Simranjit Singh Mann attended the cremation.

AAP’s Sardulgarh MLA Gurpreet Singh Banawali, who failed to turn up for the cremation at Musa village, which falls under his segment, clarified though Moosewala was his friend and that he was saddened at his demise, they had chosen not to attend the cremation owing to the “presence of a large number of youngsters”. In the evening, Banawali met the family at their residence. He added CM Bhagwant Mann would soon visit the family to offer condolences.

Taking a swipe at the AAP, PCC vice-president Aruna Chaudhary said: “It’s shameful not one MLA from the ruling party could rise above political lines to be a human first and visit the family during their hour of grief.”

State BJP president Ashwani Sharma, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi and Subhash Sharma, too, met the family.

Punjabi singers Gippy Grewal, Ammi Virk, Afsana Khan, Korala Mann and R Nait were among those who paid tributes at the artiste’s residence.