Rising fuel prices became the backdrop for visible Congress factionalism in Sirsa, where leaders organised separate protests. Congress workers, on Thursday, along with all three party MLAs staged a protest at the Mini-Secretariat against the Centre over the fuel price hike. However, district Congress president Santosh Beniwal, considered close to MP Kumari Selja, did not participate in the demonstration.
A day earlier, Beniwal and her supporters had organised a separate protest at the same venue, but none of the three Congress MLAs attended that programme.
During Thursday’s protest, Congress workers gathered under a tent at the Mini-Secretariat complex and raised slogans against the BJP government. A brief argument also broke out between protesters and police personnel at the secretariat gate after Congress leaders insisted on handing over a memorandum directly to the Deputy Commissioner.
Later, the police allowed the protesters to enter the premises through the main gate, following which a memorandum addressed to the President, demanding rollback of the fuel price hike, was submitted to ADC Arpit Singal.
Kalanwali MLA Shishpal Keharwala denied any division within the party and said different wings of the Congress were organising protests at different times. He added that the Youth Congress workers had also staged protests earlier and more such demonstrations would continue in the coming days. Targeting the BJP government, Keharwala alleged that leaders were asking the public to save fuel while themselves organising roadshows.
Sirsa MLA Gokul Setia criticised the BJP leaders for what he termed “drama politics”, alleging that ministers and leaders were riding bicycles and rickshaws merely for publicity photographs. He claimed that issues such as inflation, drug abuse and rising property prices were troubling the public and alleged that concerns raised by the Opposition were not being taken seriously.
Ellenabad MLA Bharat Singh Beniwal said people would have to unite against the BJP, while Congress leader Rajkumar Sharma accused the BJP leaders of misleading the public through symbolic publicity campaigns.
