Damaged posters: Congress rivals suspect each others

SUJANPUR (GURDASPUR): Rival local Congress factions are perplexed and ready to tear each other apart over some miscreants' act of tearing down posters and hoardings of their respective leaders here in the past few days.
Vinay Mahajan, former municipal council president and protege of senior Congress leader and Gurdaspur MP Partap Singh Bajwa whose hoardings and posters were damaged lodged a complaint with the police saying that hoardings and posters that had been put up in the Sujanpur Assembly Constituency, bearing his photos along with Bajwa’s had been defaced, torn and damaged.
Naresh Puri, also a former MC president and son of late Raghunath Puri, former urban development and PWD minister, on Saturday found that hoardings bearing his pictures with former CM and PPCC president Amarinder Singh had been razed. These had been put up by Puri’s supporters before the January 26 Congress rally which was held at Gurdaspur and addressed by Amarinder.
Meanwhile, Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma, Sujanpur MLA Dinesh Singh Babbu and Sujanpur MC president Raj Kumar Gupta in their respective statements said BJP leaders "did not believe in such petty politics of tearing banners or hoardings put up by the rival Congress”. They pointed out that police was yet to find the miscreants.
However, these incidents appear to be triggering a war within the Congress, with party sources laying the blame on Puri and Mahajan’s aspirations for the Congress ticket from Sujanpur seat in the assembly elections next year.
Without naming his rival Mahajan, Puri gave ample hints at a rally organised by his supporters at his farm near hear, that it appears to be a handiwork of his rival Congress faction led by Mahajan. He alleged that some leaders in the party were jealous of his proximity with the PPCC chief and this act of bringing down the hoardings was not only an act of desperation of his rival, "It was also an insult to the PPCC chief who was the likely chief ministerial candidate after the next assembly elections."
Mahajan did not name anybody, although, he went to Sujanpur police station and asked SHO Rajinder Singh Minhas to register an FIR against the miscreants who tore Bajwas posters.
While police refused to comment, many in the Congress feel that it is the "old antagonism" between Puri and Mahajan, which has resulted in the scenario. Mahajan’s camp has often alleged that the late Raghunath Sahai was allegedly involved in getting a corruption case registered against Mahajan during his tenure as a cabinet minister, while helping his son Naresh Puri become president of Sujanpur MC.