AAP candidate from Ferozepur resigns, joins Congress
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Jan, 2022 11:37 AM
Hours after quitting as the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Ferozepur (Rural) constituency in Punjab on Monday, Ashu Bangar was inducted into the Congress by party Chief Minister Charanjit Channi.
Channi in Chandigarh announced that Bangar would be party's candidate from the Ferozepur (Rural) seat as he is young with dreams to serve society.
Earlier, poll debutant Bangar told the media in Ferozepur that he was being "humiliated and pressurised" by the AAP leadership to spend more on electioneering.
He alleged AAP is being run like a private company by leaders from Delhi. "Candidates are pressurised with threats that their ticket would be cancelled, so no one speaks up."
He said AAP was functioning like a private company under state in-charge Raghav Chadha, "who was behaving like a dictator and mentally torturing AAP volunteers". "All decisions are being taken from Delhi without taking local Punjabis taken into confidence."
He also took objection to the AAP's charge that Balbir Singh Rajewal-led Samyukt Samaj Morcha is in league with the BJP.
He said people were angry with Chadha over his remarks against farmers when they refused to support the AAP.
Responding to Bangar's allegations against AAP, Congress spokesperson Alka Lamba, in a video message, said: "History repeats itself once again. In 2017, similar allegations were made against AAP and Punjabis never forgave them. It shows that only faces have changed but their modus operandi remains the same."
Refuting Bangar's allegations, Chadha said: "There is a conspiracy to hurt the AAP and I'm told that a senior leader of the Congress had called up the Ferozepur candidate and put pressure on him to quit the party."
Punjab will go to the polls in a single phase for the 117-member assembly on February 20.
Customs officials at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here seized 472.8 grams gold in paste form from seat pockets of a flight that arrived from Guwahati. Acting on specific intelligence, Customs sleuths recovered in gold paste form worth Rs. 23.33 lakh.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday exhorted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept his proposal for complete waiver of farmers and farm labourers' debt, adding the state is ready to take over its share of debt burden along with the government of India.
Among other questions, the MPs had sought to know the number of cases registered against farmers in connection with the agitation; the data on the number of farmers who died during the agitation held in and around the National Capital; and whether the government proposes to provide financial assistance to the kin of farmers who died during the said agitation.
A day after the three contentious farm laws were repealed by the Parliament, the government on Tuesday reached out to the agitating farmers, asking them to suggest five names to be included in a committee to be formed to discuss farm related issues, including MSP.
Pakistan Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and members of the Sikh community expressed annoyance over the fashion photoshoot at the Kartarpur shrine, Pakistan Observer reported.
Popularly known as 'langar baba', Jagdish Lal Ahuja, who was battling cancer, had been serving free food in the langar -- the practice of a free community kitchen and open to all -- across Chandigarh since 1981.
