JASWANT SINGH GANDAM & RAMAN NEHRA
India Post News Service
PHAGWARA: In a broadside against her own party , Congress stalwart and former Union minister Santosh Chowdhary today held it responsible for the death of her husband Ch. Ram Lubhaya, former MLA from Sham Chaurasi.
Talking to newsmen here in presence of her supporters, Santosh Chowdhary, who was denied a ticket from Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat, alleged that her husband had died in 2017 after he was denied ticket in assembly polls.
“My husband could not bear the shock and died. What test is the party is now putting me on by denying a ticket from Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat?” asked the miffed ex-MP.
She alleged that a turncoat was preferred to a time-tested party leader in allocating ticket from Hoshiarpur.
She was referring to Raj Kumar Chabewal who was allotted party ticket from Hoshiarpur, ignoring her claim.
She said that Chabewal has a BJP background.
“A man who is MLA for just two years was preferred to Chowdhary family having 80 years standing in Congress through its three generations”, she said.
“The party has discriminated against a dalit woman leader whom public liked and preferred a moneyed man and a turncoat who was facing opposition in his own assembly constituency,” she remarked.
She alleged that the party had ignored its own stand of giving 33 per cent representation to women.
Training her guns at Punjab Vhief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, she accused him of deceiving her and being responsible for denial of a ticket to her.
She asked high command to explain to her why she was punished for no reason and why the voters were insulted by fielding a turncoat.
She even went on to allege that a section of the party appeared to be in league with BJP as a former BJP man was preferred over the time-tested and clean-image Chowdhary family.
“Even in last the Lok Sabha polls, I was denied ticket though I was minister only to facilitate BJP win from Hoshiarpur”, she further alleged.
Maintaining that she had remained silent earlier, she declared that she won’t remain silent now and would chalk out the next course of action after discussing the issue with her supporters.
Asking the party high command to either review its decision about Hoshiarpur seat or be ready to face stringent steps from her and her supporters, she declared that she would take the fight to its logical conclusion.
However, she did not spell out the nature of the stringent step.
Her father-in-law Ch. Sundar Singh had represented Phillaur Lok Sabha seat twice while she had represented it thrice.
Ch. Sundar Singh had also remained MLA for eight consecutive terms.
Her father Roshan Lal had remained minister in Kairon government and later an MP from Himachal Pradesh.
The Phillaur constituency was later rechristened as Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat.
Chowdhary was denied ticket in 2014 also. This time she was a strong contender.
But Chabewal MLA Raj Kumar ousted her from the ticket race, leaving her and her supporters fretting and fuming.
