Cong to counter Badal blitz

patiala: responding to punjab chief minister parkash singh badal's frequent visits to patiala town, punjab congress has decided to hold a political conference here on october 28. political observers say this decision has been taken to nullify the impact of badal's visits. district president and organiser of the conference ved parkash gupta said punjab congress chief capt amarinder singh would also attend the conference along with congress parliamentarians,mlas and other senior leaders.the conference would chiefly aim at criticising sangat darshan programmes. the party's argument is that, during the last four-and-a-half years, badal and his ministers have not paid heed to development on the pretext that the government had no funds, but in the last few months, they have gone about squandering resources through sangat darshan programmes. for the congress, patiala is an important seat as it is the home constituency of state congress president capt amarinder singh, who is being projected as the next chief minister of punjab. recently, during a visit of congress observers, he was projected as the sole claimant to the party ticket. while former congress minister baraham mohindra is also vying for a ticket from patiala, he or his supporters did not appear before the observer. while shiromani akali dal (badal) has not yet projected a prospective rival to amarinder, badal is not sparing any effort to make things difficult for the congress leader. during the last fortnight, the chief minister has held three continuous sangat darshan programmes in patiala. the first of these was meant for samana vidhan sabha constituency but was held practically within the confines of patiala town. badal had held another programme for a few wards of patiala on the same day. the second sangat darshan was scheduled for dakala constituency but was again held inside patiala town while the third programme, meant for patiala, was held on the following day. the generous showering of grants by badal, during these programmes, put congress on the defensive, forcing it to launch its lok jagran programme. within a week, congress organised more than 25 corner meetings in different parts of the town.these were addressed by mp maharani parneet kaur, district congress president ved parkash gupta, former minister lall singh, former congress parliamentarian sant ram singla and congress general secretary bir davinder singh.