Jalandhar byelection: As campaigning ends today, parties train guns on opponents

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, May 7

As one day is left for campaigning for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, all parties are taking potshots at their rivals.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has faced the maximum criticism. While Opposition leader Partap Bajwa has been calling him ‘Maharaja Sartoj’ (after name of his native village) for carrying a huge fleet of gunmen, former minister Bikram Majithia has distorted his name as Bhagwant “BeiMann” for allegedly not fulfilling the guarantees and not practising what he preached. To counter them all, Mann has been holding roadshows daily for the past one week and reminding the Congress of Vigilance Bureau cases against its leaders.

As employee unions have been holding massive protests against the government on a daily basis, the CM has tried to pacify them and held marathon meetings with 16 to 17 unions, including NHM doctors, ASHA workers, contractual employees at Phagwara, and given them time till May 15 to resolve their issues.

While AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal yesterday said no senior Congress leader had campaigned in Jalandhar and it showed their lack of seriousness, the Congress camp was quick to react that the Punjab leaders, including PCC chief Amarinder Raja Warring, LoP Bajwa, ex-CM Charanjit Channi, ex-PCC chief Navjot Sidhu, campaign in-charge Rana Gurjeet Singh and ex-LoP Sukhpal Khaira, were enough to maintain a sharp attack against the government.

There is a general perception that the move to disturb the yatra of slain singer Sidhu Moosewala’s parents yesterday, the arrest of a journalist in Ludhiana two days ago, the preponing of summons against Channi, the statements made against the Akal Takht Jathedar and a recent “poetical” tweet of the Punjab CM could backfire.

CM’s assurance to staff

As employee unions have been holding massive protests daily against the government, the CM has tried to pacify them and held marathon meetings with 16 to 17 unions, including NHM doctors, ASHA workers, contractual employees at Phagwara, and given them time till May 15 to resolve their issues.