After Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh emphasised for early announcement of party candidates for 2017 polls, SAD president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday maintained that the party would declare candidates at an appropriate time.
“SAD will declare its candidates for the next Assembly elections at an appropriate time and winnability would be the criteria for selection of candidates,” said Sukhbir while addressing a press conference at Kharunj village during sangat darshan.
At the same time, Sukhbir declared that the 2017 assembly elections would mainly be a battle between the SAD and the Congress.
He refused to consider the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a major player in the Punjab polls. “AAP has betrayed the trust and mandate of the people of Delhi by doling out tickets to the tainted persons and bestowing goodies and political posts to each MlA,” he said.
Sukhbir exuded confidence that the newly-appointed state Congress chief Capt Amarinder would face defeat for the third time in a row, adding that the famous phrase, “third-time lucky” would not prove true in his case.
On Abohar murder case, Sukhbir said that the culprits would soon be brought to book.
He said that Punjab was mulling legal options over a recent Supreme Court judgement that declared as null and void the State Government’s decision to give ownership rights of land in border areas around riverbeds to peasants ploughing them.
Earlier, Sukhbir distributed development grants worth crores of rupees to the villages of Chak Jandwala, Chak Panjkohi, Chak Kabarwala, Roranwala and Kharunj during his sangat darshan programmes.
He also announced grants to build dharamshalas, playgrounds, anganwadi centres and boundary walls around schools. He added that if any panchayat made panchayati land available, people belonging to poor sections of society would be given five-marla land each for dwelling units.