Ahead of LS polls, Congress divided house in Jalandhar

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 15

The division in the district Congress was visible at the joining-in ceremony of new district presidents held at Congress Bhawan here on Tuesday.

Legislators Sushil Rinku (Jalandhar West) and Hardev S Laddi (Shahkot), both are a part of former minister Rana Gurjit Singh’s coterie, skipped the function. Rinku has been protesting against the selection of Backward Class leader Baldev Singh Dev as the District Jalandhar Congress Committee (urban) president.

Rinku is opposed to Dev because the latter is a protégé of former minister Avtar Henry, with whom Rinku has been at loggerheads for the past more than five years. Dev, for his part, had accused Rinku of getting his ticket cancelled in the last civic body elections.

Not just Rinku, all Congress councillors from the Jalandhar West constituency, including Deputy Mayor Harsimranjit Bunty, skipped the function.

Gauging the situation, all leaders who addressed the gathering — including MLAs Pargat Singh, Chaudhary Surinder Singh and Rajinder Beri — gave a call for putting up a united front ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Henry repeatedly said in his speech, “Ikathe ho ke raho (Stay united).”

He went on to say, “The choice of the party president is neither mine nor that of Jalandhar MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh. The new president is the choice of AICC president Rahul Gandhi. So keeping that in mind, we all need to stay together and support the new District Congress Committee (DCC) chiefs. On their part, new DCC chiefs will be required to keep the flock together and show their leadership skills.”

Laddi claimed he skipped the function owing to a wedding in his family, while Rinku could not be contacted as his phone was switched off. He was reportedly away to Chandigarh.

Dev said he visited Rinku’s house on Monday to request him to attend the function, but was told that he was away.