Cong leaders display unity on stage, ahead of polls

Ludhiana: After a recent MC general house meeting saw a rift among three Congress MLAs and mayor Balkar Sandhu, the party leadership gathered on one platform on Saturday to convey a message of unity to councillors and other party leaders, ahead of the parliamentary elections. At a function to announce multiple development works for the city, two cabinet ministers, one MP, three MLAs, and the district president were seen together with the mayor on the stage to show everything was well with them.
Those present at the event were local bodies minister Navjot Sidhu; food, civil supplies, and consumers affairs minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu; MP Ravneet Bittu; MLAs Rakesh Pandey, Surinder Dawar, and Sanjay Talwar; mayor Balkar Sandhu; and district president Ashwani Sharma. Ashu and Sandhu praised Sidhu for gifting so many development projects to the city at present and also in the past.

It may be recalled that in the MC general house meeting on February 4, the three MLAs had raised their voices against the mayor, with Talwar even alleging injustice to his East constituency. Bittu had then performed the role of a pacifier between Talwar and Sandhu. Sources revealed that the aim behind calling Sidhu for announcing these works was to give a strong message to party workers and opposition leaders that there were no grudges among them, and they would unitedly fight the coming elections.

Sidhu also stated from the stage that the entire Congress leadership of the city had gathered under one roof, which proved they were all united, with the city’s development being the top priority. Sidhu also asked Ashu, Bittu, Talwar, Dawar, and Pandey to announce the projects, because they belonged to their constituencies, and so it was their right to take credit as well. However, Ashu announced all the projects on the list, taking permission from the MLAs.