Moga bypoll: Cong hints at truck with PPP, Left parties

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) general secretary Harminder Singh Gill has hinted at the Congress announcing a joint candidate for the Moga assembly bypoll with the alliance of People's Party of Punjab (PPP), Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Addressing a public meeting in Moga on Wednesday, Gill alleged that deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was playing a dirty and anti-democratic role at the moment but people are ready for teach a lesson to the Badal family in Moga byelection and in parliamentary elections in 2014.

"The Congress will contest Moga bypoll and parliamentary elections on the issues of public interest and anti-hooliganism," he said.

Gill also called for unity among various opposition parties to fight the 'anti-people' policies of the state government without compromising on their basic ideologies. "The PPCC warns the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party that if the state government fails to check hooliganism and maintain law and order across the state, the Congress workers will start an agitation under the PPCC president Capt Amarinder Singh.

He said the PPCC will organise a huge political rally at Moga on January 9 where Capt Amarinder Singh will address the party workers and give a new programme for a protest against the state government policies. "The British rulers had made colonies in all Indian states before 1947 and now chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal have made a colony in Punjab, but the Congress workers will not allow it at any cost," said Gill.

Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjit Singh who is in-charge of the Moga rally said there is nothing much to read into Joginder Pal Jain's leaving the Congress and joining SAD because Jain had admitted that he was a businessman and not a politician, which showed that he had gone to SAD under a business deal. "Jain had stabbed in the back more than 62,000 voters of the Moga constituency, but they will teach him lesson in the byelection," said Rana.

"The Moga rally will see the start of an agitation against 'gundagardi', which is being spread by SAD leaders across the state. The Congress workers are ready to fight 'gunda' elements. During the byelection, we will constitute area-wise committees of youth workers under the supervision of senior Congress leaders for stopping SAD leaders," he added.

Former minister Gurchet Singh Bhullar, Malkeet Singh Dakha, PPCC secretary Harpal Singh Brar, former MLA Vijay Sathi, Mohammad Sadiq, Tara Singh Sandhu and some other prominent leaders also spoke on the occasion.