SAHNEWAL (LUDHIANA): After Jagmeet Singh Brar, a Lok Sabha member, another Congress Member of Parliament from Punjab, Jagir Singh Dard, has raised a banner of revolt against the state Congress. Dard, a Rajya Sabha member and three times member of the state assembly made a decision to revolt against the Congress, here at ‘Sahnewal (his hometown), where elections to the Municipal Council are slated to take place on next Sunday. Seven of his nominees are contesting in 13 wards going to the polls, much to the disadvantage of the Congress which will be fighting for seats. Heading the list of rebels is Mr. Dard’s older son. Rajinder Singh, who is contesting from ward number 3, as an Independent.

His supporters contesting the polls as Independents against the Congress are backed by the Joint Opposition Front; Prominent among them is Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). These contestants include Ranjit Kaur (ward one), Jeevan Kapila (ward two), Harjinder Singh (ward five), Mohinder Kaur (ward seven), Balwinder Singh (ward 11), and Dharminder Kumar (ward six). Dard, who is campaigning for his son from the Congress block office at Sahnewal, told this correspondent, last week, that he.

| was compelled to oppose the party candidates because neither the local party leadership nor the MPs had been taken into confidence in the exercise of selection of candidates. Jagir Singh said that, “the meeting in this context presided over by the Chief Minister Beant Singh and the PCC (I) president, of ‘Chandigarh, on October 31 was a farce.” He charged Gurmit Singh, Political Secretary to the CM and Malkiat Singh Birmi, a MLA from Ludhiana rural constituency with manipulating the selection process.

Dard said that he and a local Lok ‘Sabha MP, Gurcharan Singh Galib, had met Beant Singh and proposed the name of Harjinder Singh, a senior vice president of the block unit, from ward number three and four more persons for selection.

However, when the nominees list was announced, none of them figured in it. Surprisingly, Rajinder Singh’s (Dard’s son), name figured on the list from ward number three, though his name was not recommended by his father, who did not wish to eam the wrath of the public for promoting his own kith and kin as in the previous year, when his son was nominated to the local notified area committee.

Article extracted from this publication >>  November 25, 1994