A person was injured in the firing at the Congress Lok Sabha candidate Gurjeet Singh Aujla’s rally at Ajnala town near Amritsar on Saturday, said police. The incident comes a day after Congress candidate Kanhaiya Kumar was assaulted in Delhi.
Gurjeet Singh Aujla, the sitting MP who has been fielded again from Amritsar, pointed fingers at INDIA bloc partner AAP.
The 51-year-old Congress leader has alleged that AAP candidate Kuldeep Dhaliwal’s relative was behind the firing and has questioned the Election Commission as to why weapons were not seized before polls began.
AAP Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal has dismissed the allegations levelled by Congress leader.
“I don’t have any relative in that area. I learnt that MP Gurjeet Ajula levelled allegations against me saying that my relative was involved in the firing incident,” he said.
“I don’t have any relative in that specific area, I have one party worker Jarnail Singh who has been working for party…I immediately asked the officer to act against the youth who was involved in the firing incident as I learnt that some youth entered into a brawl, he said further.
The AAP leader further said that the party doesn’t believe in such “petty politics”.
“I request them to appeal for votes but don’t put such blames if they have done any work, show people and get votes. We being AAP workers don’t believe in such petty politics,” he added further.
Though allies at the national level, the Congress and AAP are contesting separately for the 13 seats in Punjab. However, the two partners have a 4:3 (AAP-Congress) seat-sharing pact in Delhi.
“A person was injured in the firing. It appears to be a case of old enmity. The injured are being treated,” said police, adding that investigation is underway.
On Friday evening, Kanhaiya Kumar, candidate from North East Delhi, was assaulted by seven to eight people and had black ink thrown at him while campaigning in the national capital.
Former Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, 61, is the BJP candidate from Amritsar.
Voting in Punjab will be held on June 1, the seventh phase of the marathon six-week Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress bagged eight of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2019, bucking the pro-BJP trend in neighbouring states. The SAD and the BJP, then fighting as allies, won two seats each. The Aam Aadmi Party got just the Sangrur seat then.
The AAP scored a handsome win in the 2022 assembly polls, winning 92 of the 117 seats. The national party is now eyeing a much bigger chunk of the Lok Sabha pie as well.
