CHANDIGARH, Punjab—On the eve of inducting Akali leader Jagjivanpal Singh into the congress fold, the head of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, Captain Amarinder Singh, announced Ramanjit Singh Sikki as a first candidate of the Congress. He informed us that the other contenders for the Khadoor Sahib seat have withdrawn their names and Ramanjit Singh Sikki will contest the polls in 2017. He also announced Lakhvir Singh Lakha from the reserved constituency Payal of Ludhiana.
S. Ramanjit Singh Sikki defeated senior Akali leader Ranjit Singh Brahmpura in the last assembly polls of 2012 by a margin of 3054 votes. Renowned for his ground level mass hold, Sikki resigned from the legislative assembly on October 18 in protest of the sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib at village Bath of his constituency.
Sikki couldn’t be nominate for the by-poll held by the Election Commission on February 13, 2016 due to his schedule of performing sewa within Sri Harmandir Sahib. In a letter sent to the National Congress authorities, he told them that it seems useless to contest the election again as the reason for which he had resigned was still unsolved. Later, the Congress announced to boycott the by-poll.
MLA Sikki had earlier expressed deep concern over the exposition of the ransom charging by the senior AAP leaders from its lower cadre. He said that the so called ‘Aam Aadmi Party’ denigrated the image of a common man by misusing the label of ‘Aam Aadmi’.
The former MLA said that if the AAP leadership stooped to such a low extent that it is charging money for meetings from lower cadre activists then it is obvious that these AAP leaders will cross all limits to loot Punjab. “As the drug mafia is well established in Punjab, the AAP leaders could even trigger a drug trade in Punjab for the sake of money,” he added.
S. Ramanjit Singh Sikki said that the masses of Punjab were fed up of the unproductive policies of Punjab and Punjab is on the edge of an economic crisis. He claimed that every citizen of Punjab was keen to see Captain Amarinder Singh as the Chief Minister of Punjab as he had a wise and experienced approach to tackle the Punjab crisis.
