Eying Sikh voters, Congress revokes ex-MLA’s expulsion

Abohar, Punjab: In a major political exercise, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) president Sachin Pilot has revoked former legislator Param Navdeep’s expulsion from the party. Former RPCC president CP Joshi had expelled her last year.

A copy of a letter signed by RPCC general secretary Pukhraj Prashar (available with The Tribune) has also been sent to Congress Sriganganagar candidate Master Bhanwer Lal Meghwal. This indicates that Meghwal had initiated the move.

Sriganganagar, Srikaranpur, Suratgarh, Sadulshehar, Raisinghnagar, Hanumangarh, Peelibanga and Sangria assembly segments make part of Sriganganagar parliamentary constituency. The BJP had badly lost the Sriganganagar segment to the National Unionist Zamindara Party (NUZP) even as party’s PM pick Narendra Modi had addressed his maiden election meeting in Sriganganagar in Vidhan Sabha elections in 2013.

Sriganganagar district is known as the “Punjab of Rajasthan” and “bread basket of the state of deserts”.

Punjabi is the most spoken language in the district, with a majority of people speaking in the Malwai dialect. The Sikh voters have played a decisive role in the Sangria segment. Param, reputed gynecologist and wife of ADGP Navdeep Singh, had won on the Congress ticket from Sangria in the 2008 assembly elections.

She polled 36,802 votes, while her opponents – Damyanti Beniwal of the BJP received 28,685 votes and Zila Parishad former vice-chairperson and Independent Gurdeep Singh got 28,212 votes.

Gurdeep had revolted as the Congress denied him ticket. He later joined the BJP, but the saffron party did not keep its promise to field him in the 2013 assembly elections.

He again contested as an Independent and polled 40,994 votes. Congress denied the party ticket to Param and fielded Zila Parishad vice-chairperson Shabnam Godara. On latter’s complaint Param and other senior workers were expelled from the party. Krishan Karwa of Lilawali village contested on the BJP ticket and defeated Godara by 11,601 votes.

                                                                              Wielding clout

• Dr Param Navdeep, a gynecologist and wife of ADGP Navdeep Singh, had won on the Congress ticket from Sangria in Rajasthan 2008 assembly elections
• The Sikh voters have played a decisive role in the Sangria segment.

Source: The Tribune