Cong unity row hits House, SAD seeks inquiry

CHANDIGARH: The infighting in Punjab Congress rocked the ongoing assembly session on Thursday after the party's Batala MLA Ashwani Sekhri told the House that his colleagues had used intimidating and abusive language against him after the session got over a day earlier.
The Congress MLAs were shocked as Shiromani Akali Dal MLAs embarrassed them by interrupting Sekhri's speech during the zero hour on the pending work on Punjabi poet Shiv Batalvi's museum and instead sought the Speaker's intervention to conduct an inquiry into the incident involving verbal attack on him.
Egged on by Speaker Charanjit Atwal, a reluctant Sekhri, went on to disclose the names of two Congress MLAs but did not reveal the reason for dispute with him.
"The dignity of the MLA must be maintained. Yesterday two of my colleagues used insulting language and misbehaved with me. They shouted on the top of their voice. Their names are already in the media reports," he said.
"Since you insist, their names are Ramanjeet Sikki and Sangat Singh Gilzian," he added.
However, Punjab revenue minister Bikram Majithia and parliamentary affairs minister Madan Mohan Mittal, a BJP MLA, asked the Speaker to take action against the two Congress MLAs.
"It is very disturbing what happened to Sekhri. He's revealed the names of those who tried to insult him. No more evidence is required if he himself is narrating the incident on the floor of the House. The House must take some action on the issue," said Mittal.
Leader of opposition Sunil Jakhar made attempts to take sting out of the situation. "It's an internal matter. The party can itself resolve the matter," while asking the treasury benches to focus on other issues concerning the state, including farmers' crisis.
The Speaker, however, said the matter will be referred to the privilege committee.
Sekhri, on Wednesday, had sought a resolution within the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) to dispel the myth around formation of a new rebel party amid heightened differences between national leaders of Congress and Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh over state party chief Partap Bajwa's replacement.
Around 30 out of 44 MLAs present in the House had signed the resolution but Amarinder confidantes, including Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjeet, Dera Baba Nanak MLA Sukhjinder Randhawa and Fatehgarh Churian MLA Tripat Bajwa, had refrained.