Jalandhar bypoll: Partap Bajwa visits Dera Ballan, terms AAP leaders’ Mar 25 tour “opportunism”
Two days before Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann’s scheduled visit to Dera Sachkhand Ballan, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa along with Congress candidate for Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary on Thursday paid obeisance at Dera premises on the outskirts of Jalandhar city.
Two days before Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann’s scheduled visit to Dera Sachkhand Ballan, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa along with Congress candidate for Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary on Thursday paid obeisance at Dera premises on the outskirts of Jalandhar city.
Both Bajwa and Chaudhary were accompanied by battery of congress MLAs and former MLAs. Dera Ballan, situated 7-km from Jalandhar, is considered to have strong political clout due to its association with Dalits in Doaba region.
Meanwhile, both Kejriwal and Mann are going to visit Dera premises on March 25 to lay foundation stone of Ravidas research centre, for which the government has already allocated funds of ₹ 25 crore.
LoP Partap Singh Bajwa said the Congress party and Chaudhary family had been associated with Dera Sachkhand Ballan for decades and it was Karamjit Chaudhary’s father-in-law,Master Gurbanta Singh, who had laid the foundation stone of Sant Hari Dass Satsang Hall at Ballan in 1976.
“But now the newly appointed AAP leaders were doing the rounds of the sacred religious places with desperation to get some votes as they were forced to resort to political opportunism due to the forthcoming by-election in Jalandhar,” Bajwa said.
Phillaur MLA Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary said the previous Congress government had released a cheque of ₹ 25 crore for construction of research centre but in an attempt to take “undue credit”, the AAP government took back the released amount and made a show of sanctioning the grant again, he added.
“Congress government had released the first installment of the grant, but after coming to power, the AAP government first stopped its release and then performed the charade of sanctioning the same amount for the same project to claim all the credit,” he said.
The Congress also raised the long pending issue of naming Adampur airport after Guru Ravidass and said that the AAP government should immediately move forward to complete the process, respecting the sentiments of people of Doaba.