BARNALA: Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring has stressed the need to infuse fresh blood in the party to bring it back to the centrestage in Punjab. Warring has said that if given a free hand for the next five years, he will take the Congress to such heights that the party will bounce back with an even bigger victory than the AAP's in February 2022 assembly elections.
While campaigning for the party's Sangrur bypoll candidate Dalbir Singh Goldy in Barnala on Saturday, Warring told TOI, "If we can pull Gidderbaha from the clutches of the Badals after 45 years... we can also achieve this. But for that, the party unit will have to be built afresh by inducting fresh blood, apart from taking support from the experienced hands. "We too will have to change our policies to be people friendly. If AAP could win 92 seats just because the people were annoyed with the Congress and other parties, we can change that into admiration and win more seats than AAP, maybe 95 in the next elections," he claimed.
Congress had taken the Gidderbaha assembly seat in 1967, but the Akalis had won it thereafter for nine successive elections with the only exception in 1992, when it (Akali Dal) had boycotted the polls.
Warring said that before gaining power in 2002, the Congress had won only 14 seats in the 1997 assembly elections "but in 2027, we will go beyond 90 seats". He cited the expulsion of Harchand Kaur, two-time party MLA from Mehal Kalan assembly segment in Barnala, and Ajaib Singh Ratolan, from Dirba assembly segment, saying the party will promote fresh blood in place of these leaders, who were not working sincerely for it. The Congress also released Goldy's election song on Sunday.
