Rahul Gandhi brings Captain Amarinder Singh, Partap Bajwa together over Faridkot row

CHANDIGARH/BATHINDA: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will on Thursday take along his two feuding deputies in Punjab - Amritsar MP Captain Amarinder Singh and Congress Punjab chief Partap Bajwa to the epicentre of the current unrest in the state - Faridkot. With this show of solidarity, the party is sending out a strong message to both SAD and BJP as well as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of the 2017 assembly elections.

This is the first time since Rahul's post-Lok Sabha visit to Chandigarh last year in October that both Amarinder and Bajwa will put up a united face. Amarinder had already reached Faridkot along with leader of opposition Sunil Jakhar and his team was busy meeting the locals. Bajwa was camping in Bathinda.

The flip-flop by the Punjab Police over the arrest of two brothers, Rupinder and Jaswinder for the October 12 desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Bargari village in Faridkot and the subsequent killing of two Sikhs in the neighbouring Behbal Kalan village had brought the state to a standstill for a couple of weeks.

When TOI spoke to Amarinder and Bajwa, the two refrained from making any comments against each other. Instead, they criticised the ruling Akali Dal for not handing over a copy of the FIR against unknown cops, who ordered the firing on October 14.

"Me and Captain saab will be there along with all senior party leaders. The regret is that no Akali has shown moral responsibility to come here or sympathise with families," said Bajwa.

"The entire state is simmering. They still went ahead with the industrial summit and did not visit the families," said Amarinder.

Rahul, who is on a two-day visit to Punjab, has also decided to breach the Badal family bastion Bathinda by staying overnight at a village on Thursday and then meeting the farmers on Friday. He will be meeting farmers whose cotton crop was damaged by the whitefly pest attack.

Both Amarinder and Bajwa, had last week, visited Faridkot that has since turned into an epicentre of protests.