Livid Sekhri walks out of Cong event

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, May 25

Batala Congress MLA Ashwani Sekhri created a flutter today by walking out of a party function in the presence of Leader of Opposition Charanjit Singh Channi and several sitting MLAs, claiming he was “treated disrespectfully”.

The gathering was organised by Ashok Chowdhury, the newly elected president of the Gurdaspur District Congress Committee, at a local marriage palace.

Apart from Channi, three MLAs and other senior Congress men were sitting on the stage when a livid Sekhri walked up to the dais, waited for a couple of minutes and then decided to leave. In a show of solidarity, office-bearers of the Batala City Congress Committee too left the venue.

Even as the speakers, including Channi, were extolling the virtue of “standing together on a single platform to defeat the SAD-BJP”, Sekhri stood alone a few yards away, showing his resentment.

Minutes later, he held an impromptu press conference where he claimed that he boycotted the proceedings as “respect due to a politician of his stature was not given to him”.

“I hold the important post of secretary, AICC. I deserve respect. I have been made to understand that a sitting MLA is responsible for driving a wedge between me and the organisers. It was at his behest that I was not given a proper seat at the stage,” he said.

The Gurdaspur Congress is divided into the pro-Bajwa and Capt Amarinder Singh groups and Sekhri is a loyalist of the latter.

Channi, meanwhile, downplayed the incident, saying he will probe what exactly happened. “He is a loyal party man. I am going to his house to placate him,” he said. He added that district presidents will be given more say in the distribution of tickets. “The process of identifying candidates has started. The names will be made public sometime in August,” he said.