Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said his visit to the Doaba region was to galvanise the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, rejecting claims that he was conducting a parallel campaign to boost the morale of his loyalists.
"Entire Punjab is my constituency as I have remained the state party chief for sixteen long years and my visit was aimed at meeting party men," he said here, with Kapurthala DCC president Harjit Singh Parmar and Congress MLA Rana Gurjit Singh by his side.
"Lok Sabha elections are drawing near. We all have to contribute for the victory of our party. Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa was working hard. But I also have the responsibility to work for strengthening the party," he said.
Quoting party's report that the defeat in the Punjab assembly polls was due to the wrong selection of candidates, Singh said winnability should be the criterion for allotting Congress tickets in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
On huge taxes levied by the Badal government on owners of plots in the garb of regularisation of unauthorised colonies, he said the state government should do so without burdening the people with taxes.
"Majority of these colonies were regularised during my tenure and now there were very few left," he said.
Calling drugs a social problem, Singh accused the Badal government of promoting the menace.
He, however, refused to answer queries on his son Raninder Singh sharing stage with Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia in New Moti Bagh Shooting Range in Patiala yesterday.
"Sports must not be mixed with politics," he quipped.
