AAP leaders wield more power than Opposition MLAs in Gurdaspur

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, January 3

AAP’s halqa in-charges, a colloquial expression used for leaders appointed by the ruling party to administer the seats from where they had lost, are dictating terms in six of the nine Assembly segments of the Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency.

This development has virtually reduced the elected legislators to mere spectators.

“AAP’s political skullduggery means the selected have become more powerful than the elected,” admitted a Congress legislator.

Some of the area chiefs had stood third during the voting in the Assembly elections. “If we challenge their locus standi or, for that matter, disobey their orders, we open ourselves to getting transferred,” said a senior official.

So much so, these leaders have prepared rubber stamps in their names. Officers, both in the police and the civil administration, take cognisance of only those recommendations which carry stamps of these leaders.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa sarcastically remarked, “These so-called leaders were beaten fair and square yet they never feel guilty while inaugurating government projects. This is pure chicanery on the part of the AAP leadership which has appointed them. They think democracies tend to work better when losing candidates are handed over the command structure.”

In Randhawa’s home turf of Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdeep Singh presides over official meetings. In Fatehgarh Churian, the seat of Congressman Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Balbir Singh Pannu calls the shots. He often presides over official meetings which, as per his directions, are held in the municipal committee office. In Qadian, the home turf of Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, Jagrup Singh Sekhwan, who stood third, has become all-powerful.

In Dinanagar, former minster Aruna Chowdhury’s seat, it is Shamsher Singh whose writ runs large. Despite being accused of flouting norms of the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, by none other than the Dinanagar SDM, he still carries on.

In Gurdaspur, Raman Bahl does all the talking. In Pathankot this task has been given to Vibhuti Sharma, who incidentally is among those who finished third.

Open projects

These so-called leaders were defeated yet they never feel guilty while inaugurating projects. This is pure chicanery on the part of the AAP leadership which has appointed them. — Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, ex-dy CM

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