A day after the Congress announced to hold Capt Amarinder Singh’s coronation as Punjab Congress chief in Bathinda on December 15, the Shiromani Akali Dal on Friday announced to hold its parallel rally at Patiala on the same day.
Deputy Chief Minister and SAD chief Sukhbir Badal announced that the party would hold its “mega rally” at Patiala on December 15 which would be a grand success and lakhs of people would be attending it.
“The morale of Akali cadre is boosted with the successful holding of four sadbhawna rallies in the State. The kind of response the SAD is getting in these rallies is a proof that the public has posed full faith in the able leadership of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,” said Sukhbir, accompanied by Information and Public Relations Minister Bikram Singh Majithia.
On the possibility of ‘maha gathbandhan’ (mega alliance) on the lines of Bihar in Punjab by Congress, Sukhbir quipped that the newly-appointed Punjab Pradesh Congress president “Capt Amarinder Singh is already having a maha gathbandhan with the hardliners and pro-Khalistan people” as his congressmen have attended the Chabba congregation and endorsed its resolutions. “Capt Amarinder Singh and his close relative SAD (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Maan are already in a maha gathbandhan for their own vested interests,” he added.