Congress leaders make a beeline for deras

Ashok Kaura

Nakodar, March 23

Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Pratap Singh Bajwa and Congress candidate for Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary along with several present and former MLAs besides senior party leaders visited various deras on Thursday to pay obeisance. They sought blessings at Dera Baba Murad Shah, Dera Baba Lal Badshah and Gurudwara Sri Malri Sahib Nakodar, Sant Baba Niranjan Dass at Dera Sachkhand Ballan, Sant Baba Nirmal Das at Dera Sant Baba Pritam Das Ji (Baba Jaure) and Sant Baba Pargat Nath at Bhagwan Valmiki Yog Ashram (Rahimpur).

They were accompanied by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Deputy Leader Raj Kumar Chabbewal, Jalandhar North MLA Avtar Singh Junior, Adampur MLA Sukhwinder Singh Kotli, Phillaur MLA Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary, former MLAs Kanwaljit Singh Lally and Chaudhary Surinder Singh, and Nakodar constituency in-charge Navjot Dahiya.

LoP Partap Singh Bajwa said the Congress party and Chaudhary family had been associated with Dera Sachkhand Ballan for decades and it was none other than Master Gurbanta Singh who had laid the foundation stone of Sant Hari Dass Satsang Hall at Ballan in 1976. At Dera Sachkhand Ballan, the leaders discussed with Sant Baba Niranjan Dass the establishment of the state-of-the-art Sri Guru Ravidass Bani Adhiyan (Research) Centre at a cost of Rs 50 crore.

The leaders also raised the long-pending issue of naming Adampur airport after Guru Ravidass.