'Congress does not need alliance for 2017 polls in Punjab'

Senior Congress leader Capt Amarinder Singh today said the party "does not need any allies" in Punjab for the 2017 Assembly elections as it was already in a "strong position to wrest power from the Akali-BJP alliance on its own".
"The situation in Punjab is entirely different from what it is in Bihar. The ground condition of the party here does not really require any alliance," the Congress' Deputy leader in Lok Sabha told reporters on the sidelines of a party rally here.
He asserted that given the response his rallies were getting across the state, including here today, the writing was already on the wall that Congress was storming to power in Punjab with a landslide mandate.

When told that some senior party leaders were favouring a similar alliance in Punjab, he said everybody was entitled to his or her opinion.
Addressing the rally, the former Chief Minister cautioned people against the last minute "allurements by the Akalis" in order to "steal their votes with deceit".
"The Congress is in a strong position to wrest power from the Akali-BJP alliance on its own," he said.

He lashed out at the Akali-BJP government particularly Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, saying he had grown "too old" to govern the state.
Amarinder said that he had been repeatedly asking the Chief Minister to list one single achievement that he (Badal) could claim to be of his own for Punjab and he was yet to come out with any, since he had none.

Referring to the much touted 'Atta-Daal' scheme, which Badal announced prior to 2012 elections, the Congress leader said, it was launched only to fool people at the time of elections.
"The moment they won the elections, they forgot that they had promised aata-daal to the poor," he pointed out, while adding, similar was the case with old-age and widow pensions and shagun schemes which had not been paid for last six months now.
Amarinder said the local Akali MLA Virsa Singh Voltoha will be subjected to the same fate and treatment he meted out to Congress workers. "We will make him account for each and every false FIR he got registered against our workers. He will run for cover and nobody will protect him, he said.

Later, Amarinder, along with other Congress leaders, paid homage at the memorial of Havildar Abdul Hamid, the 1965 War Hero and winner of the highest gallantry award Param Vir Chakra (posthumous) at Assal Uttar in Khemkaran sector here.
Abdul Hamid had shown exemplary courage during 1965 war and had held the position for three days and damaged five Pakistani tanks. At the end, he paid with his life setting a great example of valour and courage for others to follow, the Congress leader said.
The Lok Sabha MP, who had himself participated in the 1965 war, recalled those days saying it was the sacred soil where scores of his colleagues had achieved martyrdom.

While the soldiers showed great bravery, the common people along the borders also displayed great courage during that time, he said.