Badal to launch anti-Cong drive

PATHANKOT: Former chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal will be arriving in Dhariwal on Saturday to address a political conference at Burj Sahib Gurdwara.
The conference would mark the launch of a mass movement against the Amarinder government for “practising the politics of vendetta against him� and also following the alleged large scale irregularities in the recent panchayat polls.Brainchild of senior SAD leader and former minister Sucha Singh Langah, the political rally is aimed at projecting beleaguered Badal as “victim of Amarinder’s witch-hunt�.
While the BJP leaders like former minister Master Mohan Lal feigned ignorance about Badal’s visit to Dhariwal, according to Gurdaspur SAD general secretary Jasbir Singh Sandhu, Langah was fine-tuning the Badal rally with all circle jathedars told to bring more than 100-strong caravan of cars in the district to greet Badal at Batal Bypass from where he will be escorted by the waiting party leaders en route to Dhariwal.
The rally is being considered as the test case of Badal’s popularity after the state and central BJP leadership flayed “Amarinder’s witch-hunt� against him. Party insiders said that Badal may ask his partymen to court arrest in case he or for that matter any of his family members was arrested by the VB following raids at his properties in the state.
Labourer immolates self, dies: Tarsem Lal, a worker of the Bajri Construction Company immolated himself, following alleged torture by his employer Des Raj, on Friday. The postmortem would be conducted on Saturday. Police have registered a case against Des Raj under sections 336, 355, 273 and 306 of the IPC.