STATE TIMES NEWS
Kathua: Congress leader Sachin Pilot hit the campaign trail here on Tuesday as a star campaigner and attacked the Election Commission (EC) for “remaining silent” when the accounts of the main opposition party were frozen and elected chief ministers were sent to jail.
Campaigning for his party’s candidate Choudhary Lal Singh from the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency, Pilot accused the BJP government of playing “religious politics to divert attention from its failures” on the development front.
“The Election Commission is watching as a mute spectator. In connection with the Chandigarh mayoral elections, we had to move to the Supreme Court for justice, and we got it. They sealed the accounts of the Congress, put elected chief ministers in jail, and tried to muzzle the opposition,” Pilot said while addressing a rally.
He criticised the BJP leaders for allegedly using religion for political gains, saying, “They centre their politics around issues like mandir-masjid, Hindu-Muslim, Hindustan and Pakistan. However, they show little interest in issues concerning schools, colleges, hospitals, economy, employment, women, youth, farmers, and inflation.”
Pilot claimed that there is a wave of change sweeping the entire country.
“I went to Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Harayan, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh. I want to tell you – it is not true what the media and social media is projecting. But the truth is that the 10-year rule of the BJP government is being questioned by the people. People are seeking a report card of ten years’ rule of the BJP government on the ground,” he said.
Highlighting the Congress manifesto, Pilot mentioned five major announcements, including a guarantee that women from poor families would receive Rs 1 lakh in their accounts annually.
“Under the rule of the lieutenant governor, outsiders are encroaching lands. Lands that are being cultivated are being snatched from the people and given to outsiders,” he further alleged.
Hitting out at the BJP leaders over their remarks on assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, “I want to tell you that elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held before September this year. It is not the government saying so but the order of the Supreme Court.”
Pilot said that in a similar way, the Ram temple was built after the Supreme court’s judgment. “It was a judgement of the Supreme court that the Ram temple be constructed in Ayodhya. It was an order of the Supreme Court that electoral bonds are illegal. These things have been done on orders of the Supreme court”, he said.
KHOUR: Addressing public meeting at Suchetgarh in favour of INC Candidate Raman Bhalla, Sachin Pilot Pilot said that BJP has destroyed the democratic culture of the country by its mission to target only opposition leaders.
He referred to the contribution of Congress party and its leaders during difficult times of peak of militancy in J&K when BJP leaders were nowhere and it was Congress leaders risking their lives to defeat terrorism in a oblique reference to his father Rajesh Pilot who dealt Jammu & Kashmir as Internal security minister in PV Narsimha Rao government at the center.
He praised the leadership of Raman Bhalla who he said is known to him for several years personally and described him as people’s man and appealed for vote for him and send him to lok sabha.
Pilot who had come after addressing a massive rally at Kathua, said that the situation in Udhampur constituency is already one sided & claimed that INDIA alliance will win all six seats in J&K & Ladakh.
He was accompanied by PCC president Vikar Rasool Wani, AICC Secretary Manoj Yadav apart from Raman Bhalla and several senior leaders.
Raman Bhalla said that people of J&K are worst sufferers of the Modi government’s policies as our rights snatched and lands, jobs not secure while our status downgraded.
People of J&K are facing worst kind of situation since 2014& youths frustrated. He said that farmers, youth, traders, daily wagers, anganwari, asha workers all are passing through difficult phase, Bhalla said.
The people are left at the mercy of bureaucrats who are not accountable to people, the old age, widows deprived of pensions, refugees of POJK are deprived of their rights and inflation is at its peak making people suffer, Raman Bhala added.
He thanked people for their full support and said that a feeling of change is blowing in J&K and appealed to the people to reject BJP.
Several prominent leaders of Congress National Conference spoke on the occasion including Senior Vice Presidents Mula Ram, Balwan Singh, Ravinder Sharma, Vice Presidents T S Bajwa, Yash Pal Kundal, Indu Pawar, Th Hari Singh, Rajnish Sharma, Anayat Ullah, Tapas Patel, Neeraj Kundan, General Secretaries Narinder Gupta,T S Tony, Shashi Sharma, Pawan Raina, Suresh Dogra,Amrit Bali,Satish Sharma,Balbir Singh, Arshad Tantrey, Santosh Majotra, Rajesh Sadotra, Shameema Raina, Karan Bhagat, Sdr Rajinder Singh Nathu, Daleep Kumar Bhushan Dogra, Durga Dass, Naresh Kumar ( NC),Ch Hussain Waffa, Kuldeep Verma,Vijay Sharma, Ajay Lakhotra, Sanjeev Sharma, Aiyaz Chaudhary, Badri Nath Sudan, Charanjeet Bhagat,Dr Priti Bhagat ( AAP),Dwarka Chaudhary, Jatin Raina,Satish Sharma, Ajaib Moton, Bhanu Mahajan, Babbal Gupta, Sanjeev Panda, Neeraj Gupta, Rajveer Singh,Sahil Sharma, Kapil Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Sonu Dogra,Ritu Chaudhary Bhavishya Sudan, Latish Sharma Ricky Dalotra, & several others.