Punjab Congress factions come to blows

Two factions of Punjab Congress came to blows over fixing a party poster ahead of a conference of the party's women wing here.
The incident took place late last night with one faction of the party accusing the other of attacking its supporters.
A conference of Mahila wing of the party is scheduled to be held today in which Mahila Congress national President Shobha Ojha and former Punjab Chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal will address the workers.
The conference is being organised by Punjab Mahila Congress Vice-President Balbir Rani Sodhi, who is also a contender for the party ticket from Phagwara.

The other faction led by District Congress President Joginder Singh Mann, has accused Sodhi of trying to sideline its members.
When Mann's supporters went at the venue in Satnampura road here to fix the board carrying the picture of the leader and his group, the Sodhi group allegedly opposed it.

It also led to an altercation between members of the two factions.
A police contingent, led by DSP Manpreet Singh Dhillon, rushed to the site to control the situation.
Dhillon today said the force will continue to be deployed at the venue till the conference was over.
Saurav Khullar of Sodhi group told reporters from a hospital that the rival group was led by DCC President's son Harnoor Singh Mann, his supporters Sunny Mann, Gopi Bedi and others.

He alleged that they attacked him with rods and sharp-edged weapons, leaving him injured.
However, Harnoor Singh Mann, when contacted, said he was unaware about the incident.
Notably, Mann and Sodhi factions have long-standing hostility.
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Meanwhile, police today booked four Congress activists, including Harnoor Singh Mann (Harji), son of District Congress Committee President and former Punjab Minister Joginder Singh Mann, on charges of causing hurt, armed rioting, criminal intimidation and wrongful restraint.
Phagwara DSP Manpreet Singh Dhillon said a case under Sections 323 (causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (criminal intimidation), 148 (armed rioting) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in persecution of common object) of IPC was registered against the four on a complaint of local Youth congress incharge Saurav Khullar.

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Meanwhile, Punjab Congress today hailed its "victory" over the Badal government on the issue of the party's proposed effigy-burning of 'Badal Chitta Ravan' in Ludhiana tomorrow, saying it was evident that the chief minister was "brought down on his knees".
Reacting to reports that the local administration and the police had decided not to prevent the Congress workers from burning the effigies with the Badals' cut-outs, the party said the government's decision to "reverse its earlier stand" amounted to its "outright defeat".
The "reversal of stand" of the local authorities came after Congress leaders and workers today burnt 'Badal Chitta Ravan' across the state in the absence of any preventive measure of the administration to stop them from doing so anywhere.

Reports in the evening suggested that taking a cue from the other districts, Ludhiana police too had decided not to stop the effigy-burning tomorrow.
"It has become clear that the state government has no leg to stand on in the first place," Punjab Congress said in a statement here.
"This clearly indicates that the Badal government had no legal justification for its earlier stand," said state Congress leaders Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Gurpreet Gogi, Ravneet Bitu and Surinder Dawar in the joint statement.
The "stand reversal" by the Badal government had vindicated the Congress' stand that there was no legal bar on burning effigies with cut-outs, they said.