The political temperature in Punjab came to a boiling point on Tuesday with ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and opposition Congress held political rallies on Tuesday in Patiala and Bathinda respectively while the Aam Aadmi Party held Statewide protests against the State Government.
Hardliner Sikh leader Simranjit Singh Mann held a rally in Bargari village in Faridkot district, where sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib had sparked major protests and violence across the State.
Speaking at the rally in Bathinda, a stronghold of the Badals, newly appointed Punjab Congress unit president Captain Amarinder Singh said the SAD was out to ruin Punjab.
Amarinder Singh, a deputy leader of the Congress in the lok Sabha, vowed to end drug pedalling and addiction in Punjab and punish the guilty, end corruption and cancel all false cases registered against Congress workers during the 10-year SAD rule in case his party returned to power.
The former Chief Minister asked CM Parkash Singh Badal and his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal to be ready for a big political fight in the next Assembly polls, slated for early 2017.
The Congress rally saw faction-ridden State unit putting up a show of unity on the stage. Amarinder Singh was formally handed over reins of the party's State unit by outgoing president Pratap Singh Bajwa.
In Patiala, the hometown of Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister Badal and Sukhbir lashed out at the Congress and the AAP, and said both parties were trying to mislead people.
The Akali Dal leaders blamed the Congress for the recent violence and protests in Punjab. Sukhbir said the Congress had always been inimical to the people of Punjab.
The Akali Dal-BJP alliance government has been in power in Punjab since 2007. The State Assembly's present term ends in 2017.