India News | Shut Party Doors to 'opportunists, Parachuters': Senior Punjab Cong Leaders to Rahul at Pathankot Rally

Pathankot, Jan 19 (PTI) Senior Punjab Congress leaders including state chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Thursday asked Rahul Gandhi to shut the party doors to "opportunists and parachuters" and allow in only people with a clean image and owing allegiance to the Congress ideology.

The remarks by Warring, Partap Singh Bajwa and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa came at a rally on the last day of the Punjab leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, a day after Manpreet Singh Badal joined the BJP after quitting the Congress.

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Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Bajwa also said they want Rahul Gandhi to be the party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

On the party's defeat to the Aam Aadmi Party in the state elections last year, Bajwa said the people of Punjab made a new experiment by ignoring traditional parties.

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"Because we could not live up to their expectations. We had shortcomings which need to be removed in coming time," Bajwa said, with senior party leaders including president Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary K C Venugopal, chief spokesperson Jairam Ramesh, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh present on the stage.

"We need to bring clean faces, good people, people who are associated with the party's ideology," he said. "Those who are leaving us, they were never ours."

Apparently referring to Manpreet Badal, Bajwa said, "The person who left yesterday, his uncle (Parkash Singh Badal) used to wear 'Khaki shorts' under his 'pajama' but he (Manpreet) wore over it."

He said Manpreet Badal had earlier damaged the Akali government and later the Congress government.

Manpreet has served as finance minister in the Akali and Congress governments.

"Rahul ji, throw such litter out timely and bring in people with a clean image. If we have to take the Congress forward, we need to have people with clean image and people believing in Congress ideology. It won't work with parachuters. Earlier, the Congress paid a heavy price because of parachuters," he stressed.

Bajwa urged Gandhi to be the party's PM candidate for the 2024 polls. "We will make you PM in 2024 and nobody else. You are the candidate of the PM and we will not accept any proxy, please understand this clearly."

Echoing similar sentiments, Punjab Congress chief Warring also requested Gandhi and said the party should beware of opportunists from joining it.

"Rahul ji, I want to request you that when some people come in from other parties, we hug them. They can come as we need good people. But some people are opportunists and we need to beware of them and we do not want to hug them," said Warring.

Senior party leader Sukhjinder Randhawa also urged the Wayanad MP that "wrong people" should not be allowed to join the party.

"Only those should be the leader which the Congress workers want and doors should be shut permanently for those who come to damage and loot the party," Randhawa said.

Earlier, Bajwa attacked the AAP government, saying the 'badlav' has completely failed in Punjab. "Nobody is feeling safe here."

"When Punjab wakes up, the CM keeps sleeping and when he wakes up, Punjab is sleeping," Bajwa said as he took a dig at Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

"Punjab is being run by a remote control. The people of Punjab voted for Bhagwant Mann but (Arvind) Kejriwal and Raghav Chadha were ruling the state. A parallel government is being run with a remote control," he alleged.

Speaking at the rally, Gehlot said inflation and unemployment were the biggest issues the country was facing at this time.

He also targeted the BJP government for allegedly spreading fear and hatred in the country. He lauded Rahul Gandhi for taking out the yatra and said it was getting overwhelming response. "You have become a 'jannayak'," he told Gandhi.

On Mallikarjun Kharge, Gehlot said an experienced leader of the Dalit community became the Congress president. "His experience will benefit the party and the country,” he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)