BATALA: Amidst the rumors of giving Batala assembly seat to the akali dal in the forthcoming assembly elections, its district BJP, President and former Punjab BJP Yova Morcha President, Vivek Mogdil, who had revolted against this decision of the state BJP and threatened to commit suicide on December 25, if the Batala assembly seat was given to Akali dal.
“I will hold fast-undo death from December 14 at Kanda Chowk and on the birthday of former BJP Prime Minister, AB Vajpayee on December 25, I will commit suicide, if the state leadership did this injustice with the BJP workers” threatened Vivek Modgill.
Talking to media persons on phone from Chandigarh, Modgil told that out of the 33 wards of Batala town, akali dal candidates were given only 7 seats while the rest of 26 seats were contested by the BJP candidates in the last held municipal elections.
Modgil further told that being a Hindu dominant seat since independence, BJP candidates had won the assembly elections for 5 times while SAD had no tasted victory even once, which further increases the chances of winning for a BJP candidate.
He said that he along with other office bearers of the party had raised this matter with the State BJP Incharge, Skanta Kumar, who told him that no decision has been taken in this regard so far.
It is to be noted that after the delimitation, three SAD leaders from district Gurdaspur namely Capt. Balbir Singh Bath, Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal and Sewa Singh Sekhwan were eying on the Batala seat to contest their forthcoming elections as Shri hargobindpur from where Capt. Bath won the assembly elections for the consecutive three times was reserved while Fatehgarh Churrian from where Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal is planning to contest the elections was verbally allotted to Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Nirmal Singh Kahlon by the CM, Punjab Parkash Singh Badal and Sewa Singh Sekhwan, whose constituency was emerged with villages from Qadian, Kahnowan and Dhariwal, had already started visiting the town and distributing development grants to the clubs and other committees.
Moreover, the ongoing tussle between the local BJP, MLA Jagdish Sahni with the State BJP president, Ashwani Sharma is adding fuel in this fire.
A senior local BJP leader on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that if Sahni plays the rebel in the forthcoming elections, as he is likely to do if not given ticket by the BJP, he can severely dent the party’s prospects in as many as many seats of district Gurdaspur.