Moga bypoll: Congress seeks deployment of central forces

Moga: Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today sought deployment of central security forces at Moga for the entire by-election period beginning from the filing of the nominations right up to the day of counting. The party will be writing to the Election Commission for the same, he said. Police in Punjab are under tremendous pressure and demoralised by the arm twisting method of the Akalis, he told reporters. Hence, he said, it may not be possible for them to act in a fair and impartial manner. The PCC president gave example of the incident in Amritsar where an assistant sub-inspector was killed because he had objected to eve teasing of his daughter. The byelection was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Joginderpal Jain resigned from Punjab Assembly to join ruling Shiromani Akali Dal. The SAD has announced to field him in the February 23 Moga by-poll. Later addressing party leaders at a meeting, Amarinder said Moga`s people were feeling cheated by the betrayal of their MLA Joginderpal Jain who joined Akalis. People of Moga wanted to teach Jain a lesson and Congress had provided them the best alternative in Vijay Sathi, he said. The party presented a complete show of unity with all the party leaders being present at the meeting. All other claimants of the party ticket from Moga including Punjab Mahila Congress president Malti Thapar, Darshan Brar and others were present at the stage. PTI