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.
On Wednesday, The Prime Minister's rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.
Although the department has all infrastructural needs in place to deal with the large number of cases expected in case of the third wave becoming a reality, he also appealed to the people to get themselves fully vaccinated against the virus as it is the most potent tool to avoid Covid-19.
Regretting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to cancel his scheduled visit to Ferozepur midway, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said on Wednesday that there was no security lapse that led to the cancellation of the Prime Ministers visit to the bordering town.
Holding the Punjab government squarely responsible for the "gross security lapse" during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Punjab, that eventually led to cancellation of all his programmes, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday demanded dismissal of the government and imposition of President's rule.
With the spike in Covid-19 cases, Punjab on Tuesday imposed statewide night curfew daily from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and ordered closure of all educational institutions till January 15.
The accused, identified as Ashish Kumar, tied his wife Ranjan Devi and son Vaibhav to the bed and set them on fire at his house in Mayurwa locality, which comes under the Triveniganj police station.
