Congress selling tickets so partymen deserting it, alleges Sukhbir Singh Badal

CHANDIGARH: Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal ( SAD) charged the Congress with selling tickets to the aspirants for the Lok Sabha polls.

"Congress is selling Lok Sabha tickets...poor Congressmen who are keen to enter the poll fray with limited resources are dumping the party," SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal said here after inducting sitting Congress MP from Fatehgarh Sahib Sukhdev Singh Libra into the partyfold.

"Congress has become directionless...there is no respect for workers and leaders at grassroots level in the party so in frustration they are deserting it," he said.

He alleged that the decisions taken by the Congress are by a chosen few and no grassroot level worker is taken into confidence.

"Those who are getting tickets in Congress are getting them only by paying huge money," he said.

Sukhbir claimed that Union Minister of State Santosh Choudhary, who was among the front runner from her bastion Hoshiarpur, was denied ticket by the Congress and she herself alleged that she could not afford money to pay for a Lok Sabha ticket. Congress had fielded sitting Jalandhar MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee from Hoshiarpur seat.

Congress has put its bet on sitting MLA Sadhu Singh Dharamsot in place of Libra. Before 2009 elections, Libra got elected as MP on SAD ticket in 2004.

Libra hogged limelight after he defied the SAD whip in 2008 and abstained from the Parliament during voting on Nuclear deal. He was expelled from the SAD after that and year later he joined Congress and contested on party ticket to again get elected to the Lok Sabha.