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| For Slathia, its rivals within party! | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 20
Even though senior Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former Minister of State Manjit Singh has yet to join Congress but the decision it seems has not only soured the relations of the coalition partners to a certain extent but has given much needed ammunition even to the detractors of Minister for Industries and Commerce Surjit Singh Slathia within National Conference (NC) to settle scores with him.
Following Manjit Singh’s formal announcement a few days back that he is joining the grand old party of the country in a function on January 20, a rally to mark his entry into Congress was proposed for today at Vijaypur and to counter the coalition partner’s move, NC too announced a ‘massive’ rally also at Vijaypur, on the same day.
Though NC rally was held today as scheduled wherein Chief Minister Omar Abdullah took part along with other senior functionaries of the organization barring MLC Ajay Sadhotra, who was conspicuous of his absence but surprisingly Congress postponed its rally at the eleventh hour apparently at the behest of certain Jammu based senior NC leaders.
Now, the Congress will hold its rally on January 23 and it is expected that Union Minister Prithvi Raj Chavan along with Pradesh Congress Committee president Saif-ud-din Soz and a battery of state cabinet ministers belonging to party will participate.
Sources told Early Times that it was on the ‘advise’ of some senior NC leaders that Congress rescheduled the dates of its function.
The leaders apparently succeeded in convincing the Congress top brass that holding the rally on same day may prove counterproductive for the party and it may turn out to be a damp squib as the organizational skills of Slathia are well known. The newly found ‘advisors’ of Congress further discussed that today’s NC rally may witness more public participation than party’s rally as the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Surjit Singh are big crowd pullers, sources further said
Notably, Surjit Singh Slathia and Manjit Singh are bitter political rivals in Vijaypur assembly constituency from where the former and latter locked horns thrice since 1996. While Surjit Singh won in 1996 and 2008 assembly elections, Manjit Singh defeated his bete noire in 2002.
While the proposed joining of Manjit Singh might adversely affect Slathia politically which he could handle whenever he gets an opportunity in the elections but the way his detractors are playing behind the scene gimmicks are worrisome factor for him, sources added.
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