Finally taking the charge, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday asked the party leaders to concentrate on development plank instead of indulging in war of words with the opponents.
Badal held an important meeting with the senior party leaders including the members of Parliament, Ministers, legislators, district presidents and other key functionaries.
He asked them to focus on “positive” campaign for 2017 Punjab polls on the issue of all round development works carried out by the SAD-BJP combine in its two consecutive terms.
Badal has asked the party leaders and workers to stay away from the negative campaigning being run by the other political parties.
“The Akali Dal rank and file should be ready to contest the forthcoming elections on the development plank and I ask them to lead a positive campaign focusing on the work done by the SAD-BJP government during the last about 10 years,” said Badal.
The five-time Chief Minister has asked the party leaders and workers not to be distracted by the opposition parties, which he said “were hell bent upon making false promises with the sole purpose of deceiving the people”.
“Be it fulfilment of major promises, social welfare schemes, development projects or even construction of yaadgaari (memorial) monuments, the SAD-BJP Government had delivered in every aspect of governance. Heritage works, including the heritage street, partition museum and interpretation centre, which have come up at Amritsar, have put Amritsar on the world map,” Badal
said.
The ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance, which has been in office in Punjab since 2007, is being challenged by the main opposition Congress and a new entrant in Punjab's political space, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), for the assembly elections early next year.
Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal urged the party leadership to “expose the false promises being made by the Congress as well as Aam Aadmi Party”.
Sukhbir said that debt tribunals were being established in all districts to ensure all loans taken by farmers were settled at the earliest.
“Steps are being taken to ensure that the farmers did not have to pay any interest on cooperative loans. We have done the most for the farmers and we are proud of it,” Sukhbir said.
He said that AAP was a “fly-by-night” operator and was misleading people in Punjab.