Amarinder finally returns to Punjab to fight Akalis

Shambu, Patiala, May 2 (UNI) After staying away from Punjab for almost a month and a half, former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh finally returned to his home state determined to fight the "political vedetta" unleashed by the SAD-BJP government against himself and the Congress workers.

On his arrival at the Shambu barrier on NH-I, the 'Maharaja' who ruled Punjab from 2002 to February this year was welcomed with banners and 'zindabad' slogans by a crowd of about 3000 Congress leaders and workers. Standing atop an open jeep alongside his mother, Mohinder Kaur and brother Malwinder Singh, he accepted the greetings of his supporters with folded hands and asked them to "ready themselves for the battle ahead against the repressive regime of the SAD-BJP".

Amongst those who came to welcome the former chief minister were just 16 of the 44 Congress MLAs. State Congress chief Shamsher Singh Dullo and Leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, who had remained Capt Singh's deputy in the last government were conscpicious by their absence.

" Neither myself nor any of my ministers were corrupt", Capt Singh said at a media conference here while claiming that he had provided a corrupt free government during his five year tenure. Capt Singh alongwith former minister Choudhry Jagjit Singh and 15 others have been booked on corruption charges in the multi crore Ludhiana City Centre scam case registered by the Vigilance Bureau at Ludhiana.

Claiming his innocence in the scam, the former chief minister said that he had full respect for the judicial process and would seek the advice of legal experts in the case. He was quick to point out that it was he who had ordered an investigation into the scam.

Denying that he had deliberately prolonged his stay in New Delhi after his return from the UK on April nine, as he feared appearing before the Vigilance Buear, he claimed " I had to get myself medically examined by certain doctors in the national capital, whose names were suggested to me by physicians in the UK". Capt Singh after taking oath as a member of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on March 15, had left the state and then gone to the UK, claiming that he was going abroad for health reasons.

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