ALL IS NOT WELL within Congress MCs

Ludhiana, January 29, 2013: It seems as if all is not well within Congress municipal councillors (MCs) of Ludhiana.

They are repeatedly proving that they “divided”.

In-fact, they are becoming a laughing stock for others.

Congress municipal councillors (MCs) led by Leader of Opposition in the general house of Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (LMC) Hem Raj Aggarwal staged a protest outside the Corporation’s Zone A office on Monday.

They sought that the Corporation’s general house meeting should be convened immediately. They pointed out that four months had been passed when Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria had taken the charge but not a single meeting had been convened so far, resulting to which all the development works had been standstill.

The Congress municipal councillors also staged protest against exorbitant development charges being charged by the Corporation. They also raised their voice against property tax.

Protestors were holding placards related to their demands.

They raised shouted slogans against the Corporation.

The most noticeable thing was that Congress councillors showed that they were divided ones, as 7 MCs belonging to MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashu did not join them. It may be mentioned here that in the 75-member MC House, the Congress has 19 councillors. Of these 19 MCs, 7 owe allegiance to Bharat Bhushan Ashu who is representing Ludhiana West assembly constituency.

It is not the first time that Congress MCs belonging to the Ashu's group had not joined the party MCs in the protest. Earlier too on December 20, they had stayed away when the District Congress Committee (Urban) organised a protest outside the Zone-A office. The MCs belonging to the Ashu’s group are; Deepika Bhalla, Narinder Sharma, Gurpreet Singh Bassi, Mamta Ashu, Balkar Singh Sandhu, Jai Parkash Sharma and Maharaj Singh Raji.

Political observers believe that whatever may be the reasons for their absence but it is a hard fact that the MCs are giving bad impression in the eyes of Ludhiana people.

They also believe that with their “absence”, the MCs belonging to the Ashu group are weakening the party.

Rather, it is the time when the party men should show complete unity and strength when the Congress is in the Opposition in Punjab and there is an utter need of unity, the political observers said.

They said the MCs showing disunity must not forget that they were in the “politics” only because of the Congress, adding moreover all the Congress MCs were bound to work under leadership of Leader of Opposition in the general house of the Corporation.

Further, political observers believe that Leader of Opposition Hem Raj Aggarwal and Ludhiana DCC (Urban) president Pawan Dewan should also try their best to resolve “differences”, if any, so that their political opponents should not get benefit out of their disunity.

Moreover, people of Ludhiana can be benefitted in a better manner only if there is a “strong” opposition in the general house of the Corporation.

Therefore, it is a high time that all the MCs should sit together and resolve their differences in the larger interest of the Congress, Ludhiana and Ludhianavis, the political observers strongly believe.