Bittu’s ‘revolutionary’ march runs into factional fight in Batala

The incident occurred when former Congress chief parliamentary secretary Ashwani Sekhri arrived with his supporters to welcome Bittu and started walking with him. When they reached GT Road,other local Youth Congress leaders also gathered and they started pushing each other to get ahead,resulting in frayed tempers.

At this Sekhri’s opponents,led by former Youth Congress chief Manjeet Singh Hanspal and former city Congress head Kasturi Lal Seth,asked Bittu to go ahead with the programme they had organised to welcome him and many of their supporters started raising slogans. Shekhri’s men too then started raising slogans in his favour and,suddenly,they were all raising slogans against each other.

It was at this stage that the clash broke out. The policemen on duty,however,remained mute spectators.

Hanspal said that it was Shekhri’s men who had first misbehaved and similar charges were levelled by Shekhri against him. Meanwhile,Bittu left the scene and said that his Yatra was started on the instructions of All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Rahul Gandhi.

He tried to play down the scuffle,saying that the Congress is a big party and differences sometimes break out. He,however,condemned the use of force saying that all issues can be discussed and that he does not condone violence under any circumstance.