Amarinder Singh to campaign for Dhuri bypolls

Former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said he will campaign for the Dhuri bypolls, barely days after deciding to stay away from canvassing while accusing PCC chief Pratap Singh Bajwa of trying to create "dual power centres" for the by-election campaign.
The senior Congress leader today said he has now decided to campaign for two days before the bypolls, scheduled for April 11, after many party leaders had met with him and wanted him to canvass.
"I will be campaigning for the Dhuri bypolls," Amarinder Singh said told reporters here.
Three days ago, fissures in Punjab Congress had come to the fore as several MLAs considered close to Amarinder Singh were conspicuous by their absence in a meeting called by Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed in connection with the bypoll for Dhuri Assembly seat.

The meeting had been called at the residence of Dhuri's former MLA Gaganjeet Singh Barnala, whose son Simar Partap Singh Barnala is contesting the by-election on Congress symbol.
The meeting of the party MLAs and MPs from the state had been summoned by Ahmed, who is party's Punjab affairs in-charge, to draw the strategy for the bypoll.

Amarinder, Congress's Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha, had strongly disapproved Bajwa's "attempts to create dual power centres for Dhuri Assembly bye-election campaign" by nominating a separate election in-charge even though PCC vice president and MLA Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi had earlier been assigned the task, and decided to stay away from the poll campaigning.

Simar Partap has been fielded as a joint candidate by several parties opposed to the SAD-BJP coalition and has entered the fray fighting on the Congress symbol.
The SAD-BJP alliance has nominated former minister Gobind Singh Longowal as its candidate for Dhuri assembly by-election which was necessitated after Congress MLA Arvind Khanna resigned from the Assembly in January.