NEW DELHI: On a day Rahul Gandhi launched the Congress campaign in Punjab, five party MPs were conspicuous by their absence at the Golden Temple event, with one saying they were not invited to the event.
Congress MPs Ravneet Bittu, Mohd Sadiq, Preneet Kaur, Manish Tewari and Jasbir Singh Dimpa were not present at the event leading to speculation that they are being upset over ticket distribution and other issues.
Dimpa is upset as he was denied ticket from Khadoor Sahib. His close aide also joined the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) after being denied ticket. Dimpa said that there was no invitation for MPs to attend the event and he thought that it was for the 117 candidates.
“I thought they wanted to invite only 117 Assembly candidates. I did not get any invite from the CM, AICC in-charge or the PCC,” he added. Kaur, wife of Amarinder Singh, has been keeping away from the party ever since her husband parted ways with the party.
Tewari, who has been attacking Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, was reportedly travelling to his constituency and could not attend the event. Sadiq said he was not able to go to Golden Temple as his sister-in-law had passed away.
Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused rival political parties of concentrating power in the hands of the PM or the CM while according to his party's ideology, it belongs to people.
Gandhi said because of the centralisation of power as was being done by the BJP-led Centre, the country and states suffer.
Because of demonetisation and the GST implementation, small shopkeepers and medium enterprises suffered the most while only two-three billionaires were benefited, he said.
"Be it Narendra Modiji, BJP or other parties, including AAP. All these parties concentrate power. They give power to the CM and the PM," he said.
"According to the Congress ideology, power belongs to people and we want to give it to people," he said.
Recalling that his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had talked about the Panchayati Raj system, Gandhi said power should be given to sarpanches and leaders of local bodies.
"Punjab should not be run by bureaucracy," he said.
He also attacked the BJP-led Centre for bringing farm laws, which were later repealed after protests by farmers.
He said the main aim of the legislations was that what belonged to farmers, labourers and small shopkeepers be given to the country's five to six billionaires.
He lauded farmers of Punjab for forcing the Centre to repeal the laws.
He also flayed the Centre over unemployment.
"The country today has the highest unemployment," he said.
Lauding the Channi government, he said it brought down fuel prices and power tariff.
The government did a historic work, which does not happen in other states, he said.
"Why we did it? Because we understand that the poor are today bearing the maximum burden," he said.
The entire burden has been put on the poor in the country, he said, adding, "we want to lessen that burden."
Gandhi also spoke about mobilising resources from mining, transport and cable TV sectors for the welfare of the state.
"How to decentralise power in Punjab? Question arises. First of all, your money is in four areas, which are liquor, mining, transport and cable TV. Thousands of crore is in these system and they do not reach you," he said.
"We have made a beginning but we do not need evolution. We need revolution and we want to give your money to you and in these four areas, we will not do evolutionary job but revolutionary," said Gandhi.
He also spoke about business clusters and hubs.
The money mobilised from alcohol, mining, transport and cable will be used to turn these hubs into world-class centres of excellence, he said.
"The whole world should see 'made in Punjab', '' Gandhi said as he emphasised on boosting local industry.
He also promised that around 160 government will be provided to people on the internet if his party's government returns to power in the state.
Gandhi stressed the most important thing in Punjab is peace and brotherhood.
"The Congress is the only party which belongs to everyone. You all are ours," he said.
"Our experience is that thousands of Congress workers gave their blood," he said.
"No matter what happens, the Congress will never allow peace to be disturbed in Punjab. We will die but will never allow it to be disturbed," he said.
"We know how it is to be done and we have done it," he said.
Congress MLA from Nawanshahr Angad Saini on Thursday said his allegiance to the party cannot not be doubted and defection of his wife to BJP is inconsequential to his loyalty to his constituents.
Saini is seeking re-nomination from Nanwanshahr assembly constituency, from where Congress is yet announce a candidate.
There are eight seats in all where the party is yet to declare candidates for the February 20 Punjab assembly polls.
It has already declared 109 candidates out of the total 117 assembly segments.
Saini's wife Aditi Singh - whom he married in 2019 -- is an MLA from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.
she had joined the BJP after quitting the Congress last year.
In a Facebook post, Saini said his wife's defection to BJP in no way diminishes his loyalty to the party and it cannot be brought to cast a shadow on his will to serve people.
In the post, the leader referred to "media reports" about his "estranged" relationship with his wife.
He said this is his personal matter and should not be highlighted in the public domain.
"As regards my allegiance to the Indian National Congress, no doubt can be raised, my predecessors and I have served the same with honour and dignity and as such my wife's ideological differences and allegiance to any other party cannot even remotely cast aspersions or an iota of doubt on my will to serve my people," he said in his post.
He appealed to people to not equate "issues over any matrimonial or ideological differences amongst the two of us".
Saini said ideological differences at his home have nothing to do with his "capability, integrity and will to serve the people of my Constituency".
Singh said he and his family have been "ardent flag bearers" of the Congress for the last 60 years and will continue to do so.
The BJP fielded two Congress turncoats and its former Union minister Vijay Sampla for next month's Punjab Assembly polls as it released its second list of 27 candidates on Thursday.
Later in the night, the party announced that it would field Jagmohan Singh Raju from the hotly contested Amritsar East seat against Congress state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and senior Akali Dal leader Bikramjit Singh Majithia, the brother-in-law of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The party also fielded Ram Chawla from Amritsar Central constituency and Manjit Singh Manna from Baba Bakala (SC) seat.
The BJP is contesting the polls in alliance with former chief minister Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt).
The BJP will fielding its candidates on 65 seats according to the seat-sharing arrangement with its allies.
Earlier on Thursday, the BJP gave tickets to two sitting MLAs Fatehjang Singh Bajwa and Harjot Kamal, who had recently quit the Congress and joined the party.
Qadian MLA Bajwa will be contesting this time from Batala.
The Congress has fielded his elder brother Partap Singh Bajwa from Qadian.
Harjot Kamal will be in the fray from his current constituency Moga, where his former party has fielded actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood's sister Malvika Sood, prompting the MLA to join the BJP.
Vijay Sampla, who is currently the Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, will contest from Phagwara.
The BJP has made Rakesh Dhingra as its candidate from Lambi, the seat from where SAD patriarch and former CM Parkash Singh Badal will be contesting.
BJP's Randeep Singh Deol will be in the fray against AAP's chief ministerial face Bhagwant Mann from Dhuri.
From Chamkaur Sahib, the BJP has fielded Darshan Singh Shivjot.
Chamkaur Sahib is currently represented by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
The BJP has also fielded Iqbal Singh Lalpura, who is the chairperson of the National Commission of Minorities, from Rupnagar.
Former Akali MLA Sarabjit Singh Makkar has been given ticket from Jalandhar Cantt.
Makkar had joined the BJP after the Shiromani Akali Dal denied him the ticket from Jalandhar Cantt.
From Bhoa, the party gave ticket to Seema Kumari while from Gurdaspur, it fielded Parminder Singh Gill.
From Mohali and Ludhiana North seats, Sanjiv Vashishth and Parveen Bansal have been given tickets, respectively.
Voting for Punjab's 117 Assembly seats will be held on February 20 and the counting will take place on March 10.
(With PTI Inputs)