ND: Ex-servicemen piqued at Cong MLA defection

New Delhi, June 12: Ex-servicemen of Uttarakhand have resolved to defeat former Congress MLA and ex-Tourism Minister Lt Gen (Retd) T P S Rawat, who defected to the BJP recently, in the upcoming Lok Sabha by-election by a huge margin.

''Uttarakhand ex-servicemen will ensure that Lt Gen Rawat is defeated by a large margin and is taught a bitter lesson for his treachery,'' AICC Secretary Capt Praveen Davar said in a statement issued here yesterday.

Capt Davar, an ex-serviceman, claimed the defection of the former Congress MLA to the BJP had come as a '' rude shock'' to all ex-servicemen throughout the country, especially those belonging to Uttarakhand.

The AICC Secretary said Lt Gen Rawat, who lost to Maj Gen B C Khanduri, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, in the last Lok Sabha election had ''now joined hands with the very person he found inferior in rank, status and battle worthiness''.

''However, he (Mr Rawat) has dug his own grave,'' Mr Davar claimed.

Criticising Mr Rawat, the senior Congress leader claimed that ex-servicemen taking to politics on retirement ''find the Congress a neutral ally as it is the only political party which is beyond caste, communal and parochial considerations''.

''It is for this reason that barring a few misguided retired Generals who are blind to the blatantly communal and fascist characterists of the BJP, the politically conscious ex-servicemen prefer to join the Congress, he claimed.

UNI