Rajpura rebels to fight official nominee

Manish Sirhindi

Tribune News Service

Rajpura (Patiala), January 17

In a development that may land the SAD-BJP campaign in this constituency into troubled waters, local leaders of both parties have decided to contest as Independents to protest the fielding of BJP’s senior vice-president Harjit Singh Grewal, whom they say is an “outsider”.

President of the local unit of the SAD Jagdish Jagga and BJP’s civic body chief Parveen Chhabra said they were against Grewal’s candidature and would contest as Independents.

Both leaders, who had organised separate protests after Grewal’s candidature was announced, said they were against an “outsider” contesting from Rajpura.

According to political observers, this might result in a split of SAD-BJP votes in the constituency.

Meanwhile, Grewal maintained that he did not want to be dragged into these protests and that it was for the party leadership of the Akali Dal and BJP to sort out the differences.

Grewal said that he would welcome anyone contesting the elections. He claimed any split in the local units would not affect his winning prospects as people would vote for the “unprecedented” development carried out during SAD-BJP rule in the state.

On the other hand, Charanjit Singh, former district president of BJP’s Yuva Morcha, held a press briefing alleging the Grewal had demanded a sum of Rs 25 lakh from him for getting him the chairmanship of the local improvement trust. He alleged that Grewal was involved in financial irregularities of Rs 3.5 crore in name of running a school for special children.

Grewal said these allegations were political motivated and were levelled against him after Charanjit joined the Congress yesterday.