Ability to win only criterion for selecting candidates: Cong

Interacting with the workers of the three assembly segments of Fatehgarh Sahib,Amloh and Bassi Pathana,Singh said the selection process for the candidates will start in September.

Singh said,the ongoing tour of the assembly segments was purely to get a feedback on improving the party functioning and electoral prospects besides listening to the woes of the workers and had nothing to do with the screening of the candidates. “Earlier when I came here during the district rallies you listened to me,now I have come to listen to you,” he said.

He said,he had come across many cases of excesses and atrocities against party workers. “During the time of parliamentary elections,about 30,000 cases were reported. This number has now increased to 50,000 cases,” said Singh,adding that the PCC was collecting the details of the cases from the districts.

The former chief minister expressed surprise at the behaviour of SAD leaders,“It is a matter of eight months more. Each and every leader found guilty of harassing and intimidating our workers will have to pay for it,” he warned.

Regarding the election manifest he maintained that the party prepared its manifesto with a view to deliver all its promises.

He said,“during the last tenure the Congress government implemented all the 43 programmes it had listed in the manifesto.”