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Updated June 28th, 2022 at 09:52 IST

Manish Tewari targets Congress over Sangrur bypoll result; 'Should introspect'

Even as Congress cheered the defeat of AAP in the Sangrur bypoll on June 26, Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari had a word of caution for the Sonia Gandhi-led party. 

Reported by: Akhil Oka
Manish Tewari, Congress
Image: Twitter/ANI | Image:self
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Even as Congress cheered the defeat of AAP in the Sangrur bypoll on June 26, Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari had a word of caution for the Sonia Gandhi-led party. Taking to Twitter on Monday, Tewari conceded that the election result was a wake-up call for the ruling Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab. However, he advised Congress leaders to introspect instead of celebrating AAP's defeat. To buttress his point, Tewari highlighted that Congress' votes reduced from 3,03,350 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to 79,668 this time. Moreover, he lamented that the Congress candidate lost his deposit

The Sangrur bypoll

The bypoll to the Sangrur was necessitated by the resignation of Bhagwant Mann from this Lok Sabha seat. Mann who took over as the CM following AAP's stupendous victory in the Assembly polls won the election from Dhuri. While AAP reposed its faith in Gurmail Singh, he lost to Simranjit Singh Mann by 5822 votes. This was perceived as an embarrassment for the Arvind Kejriwal-led party as the Punjab CM had won this seat twice. Incidentally, the SAD (Amritsar) supremo who is an ex-IPS officer won from Sangrur in 1999 too. 

However, a controversy erupted as Simranjit Mann attributed his victory to the teachings of terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Propagating the creation of a Sikhism-based theocratic nation of Khalistan, Bhindranwale and his supporters occupied the Akal Takht complex in Amritsar and gave refuge to all hues of criminal elements. This compelled the Centre to launch Operation Blue Star which succeeded in rescuing the religious place from the clutches of the terrorists in June 1984. 

Making ludicrous claims while speaking to the media on June 26, Simranjit Mann said, "It is a win of the party workers, the teachings of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and the peaceful struggle. The Sikh community is upset with the martyrdom of Deep Singh Sidhu and Sidhu Moosewala. The Indian government cannot do to Sikhs what they are doing to Muslims, the way in which their localities are being questioned and atrocities are being committed in Kashmir. The Indian Army kills Kashmiris and no inquiry is conducted. The government kills tribals in Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh by branding them as Maoists."

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Published June 28th, 2022 at 09:52 IST

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