Sukhbir Singh Badal concludes his Punjab Bachao Yatra ; prays for ‘Sarbat da Bhala’ at Sri Kesgarh Sahib
Bahadurjeet Singh/Rupnagar,May 14,2024
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal concluded his Punjab Bachao Yatra, which started at Takth Damdama Sahib on February 1, at Sri Kesgarh Sahib , Ananadpur Sahib today travelling more than 3,200 kilometers across 80 constituencies in the State.
“I am fortunate to have been with the people and listened to their sorrows and grievances. Today Ii paid obeisance to the almighty and prayed that he gives me and my party the strength to ameliorate the lot of Punjabis in keeping with the philosophy of ‘Sarbat da Bhala’ propounded by our Guru Sahiban”.
The SAD president, who toured this assembly segment as well as Chamkaur Sahib and Sri Anandpur Sahib at the head of the Punjab Bachao Yatra which received a stupendous response with thousands of people lining the roads and listening to his speeches, said the “winds of change have started across the State. We have been successful in exposing the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as well as their unholy alliance besides convincing people that we were right in not aligning with the BJP whose central government has discriminated against our farmers besides hurting Sikh sentiments”.
Sukhbir Badal said it was important to vote for the SAD to bring the State back on the road to development. “All development has been stalled for the last seven years of Congress and AAP rule. The weaker sections have also been discriminated against with all social welfare schemes being curtailed”. He said in direct contrast the erstwhile SAD governments had not only given free power facility to farmers but also introduced novel social welfare schemes like old age pension, atta-daal and shagun.
The SAD president made it clear emphatically that the BJP would not be able to form the next government in the centre, even as he asserted that regional parties would play a big role in the formation of the next government. He said the BJP’s citadel in North India was already crumbling. “The party is being boycotted in Haryana. It is also facing a rout in Bihar. In Maharashtra people have rejected the BJP enmasse in protest against the manner in which it broke the Shiv Sena and the NCP”. While referring to the Prime Minister’s statements he said nobody could disturb the unity of the country. A minority community constituting even one per cent of the population of the country has the same rights as those in the majority”, he added.
Sukhbir Badal was campaigning in favour of Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra who is contesting from Sri Anandpur Sahib parliamentary constituency. Speaking on the occasion Prof Chandumajra said once elected to power he would ensure opening of a CargoTerminal at the international airport at Mohali besides channelizing the Sutlej River to create massive tourism projects. He also gave details of how he had started a train to Sri Hazur Sahib, got the defunct NFL project reopened, got a passport office opened in Ropar besides being instrumental in establishing 27 railway bridges.
The SAD president also launched a frontal attack on chief minister Bhagwant Mann. He said a drunkard could never do anything for the welfare of the State and cited how the chief minister had also campaigned in a drunken state during a recent road show in Bathinda. He said earlier the chief minister has also dishonoured the State by being deboarded from an aeroplane in Frankfurt after being found in a drunken state. He also asserted that the chief minister was in the control of home minister Amit Shah as he wanted to evade arrest in the Punjab liquor scam. Badal said the union home minister’s larger game plan was to break the AAP party in Punjab in the same manner in which the Shiv Sena was broken in Mumbai. “Bhagwant Mann has agreed to do this and is set to form a AAP (Punjab) party which will delink itself from Arvind Kejriwal’s party”, Badal said.
Sukhbir Singh Badal concludes his Punjab Bachao Yatra ; prays for ‘Sarbat da Bhala’ at Sri Kesgarh Sahib. Speaking about the Congress party, Badal urged the electorate to remember June 1, 1984. “Voting will take place on June 1 next month. You must remember what occurred on this day in 1984. Your holiest shrine was attacked with tanks and mortars by Indira Gandhi. Subsequently thousands of Sikhs were butchered on the streets of Delhi and elsewhere. You cannot vote for a party which sponsored this mayhem”, Badal told the audience.