Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today admitted that there were issues over giving party tickets to family members, and claimed that there was no dispute within the party.
The party's Central Screening Committee has held several discussions yesterday and today has discussed all the seats thread-bare, but a final call will be made by the Central Election Committee headed by party chief Sonia Gandhi.
"The party tickets will be declared soon after the CEC meets. The list of party candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in Punjab will be declared in two parts probably," he said addressing a press conference.
Amarinder denied any disputes or differences on tickets, saying there was "total consensus" on the names and reiterated that party candidates would be preferred over those joining from other parties, with the latter to be considered only on seats where the Congress had no winning candidates of its own.
There are more than one member of a family who wants to contest the Assembly polls. But the Congress party has said only one member from a family will be allowed to contest the upcoming Assembly polls, he said.
The Congress in Punjab also got a boost with some Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders joining it and were welcomed by the party chief Amarinder Singh at his residence here.
Amrik Singh Aliwal of SAD, as well as Mahesh Gupta and Gurbans Singh Punia of AAP, said they were completely disillusioned with their respective parties, which were not interested in the welfare of Punjab but were merely befooling people of the state with their false promises and tall claims.
Aliwal, Akali Dal's vice president and former Ludhiana MP, expressed his angst at the "anti-democratic" functioning of the Badals-led party and said the Badals had only personal agenda and he was feeling suffocated under their leadership.
Having spent 35 years in the Akali Dal, he said the turn-coats and new entrants in Akali Dal were given preference over old timers who had toiled hard during the tough days in the past.
The Punjab Agro Industries Corporation chairman said the Badals were "undemocratically" running the party like their personal fiefdom with no concern for the people of the state, who were struggling to make both ends meet.
Amarinder said Amrik, who is also a former Youth Akali Dal
president, was clearly disillusioned with the SAD and his decision to quit the party and join the Congress indicated the deep rot in the Akali Dal under the Badal leadership.
Mahesh Gupta, an AAP ticket aspirant from Jalandhar North and head of the Agrasen Society of Jalandhar, also joined the Punjab Congress in Amarinder Singh's presence, blaming the high levels of corruption and greed of the AAP leadership, including Arvind Kejriwal, for his decision.
Mahesh was pivotal in organising three AAP Agrasen Sabhas in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Fategarh Sahib.
Welcoming the AAP leaders into the party fold, Amarinder said both Mahesh and Gurbans would be valuable assets to the Congress.
He also vowed to reopen investigations in all major cases of sacrilege in the state, as well as the recent Nabha jailbreak incident, alleging involvement of the Badals and other Akali leaders in these incidents and promising stringent punishment against those found guilty.
Amarinder said not a single incident of sacrilege, including the one in Bargadi (Faridkot), had been properly investigated and no culprit brought to book in the various cases reported from different parts of the state.
He accused the Badals of instigating such incidents to incite communal polarisation with an eye on the coming Assembly elections.
On Navjot Singh Sidhu's joining, he said he would surely come to Congress as his wife was already in the party. He also indicated Yamini Gomar, who quit AAP making serious charges against Kejriwal, could join the Congress. He said she had met him a few days ago and showed interest in joining.
