Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Thursday urged the people of Dakha assembly constituency to reward performance by supporting the party and snub “opportunism” by rejecting the Congress which had fielded an “outsider”.
Sukhbir, addressing a number of rallies in favour of SAD-BJP combine candidate Manpreet Singh Ayali, said that the Akali leader was known for ushering in a wave of development in the constituency while the Congress candidate was an OSD of the Chief Minister and was directly responsible for denying due benefits to Punjabis.
“You must ask this OSD why he has denied SC scholarships to youth, cycles to girl students, mid day meals to school children, Shagun to under privileged brides, jobs to youth and even sugar cane dues to farmers,” said Sukhbir.
Taking on the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder, Sukhbir said that someone, who had taken a false oath in the name of the holy Gutka Sahib, could not be expected to fulfil any promise made to the people.
“Nothing could be expected from a Chief Minister who had visited his office twice in a span of more than two years and had not even found it fit to visit Sri Darbar Sahab after being sworn in as the Chief Minister,” he said.
Stating that it was Capt Amarinder who had committed the biggest sacrilege by taking a false oath on the sacred ‘charn’ of Guru Gobind Singh, Sukhbir said that the Chief Minister was following in the footsteps of the Congress party which had always oppressed the Sikhs.
“We can never forget how the Congress party attacked Sri Darbar Sahib and how it engineered the massacre of thousands of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984,” he said, adding that in direct contrast, SAD had worked to propagate and preserve Sikh culture and built monuments like the Virasat-e-Khalsa, Fateh Burj, Chhota and Vadda Ghallughara.
Saying that the drug menace had increased dramatically in Punjab under Congress rule, Sukhbir said that the main reason for this was the “open shelter being given to drug traffickers by Congress legislators. Things have come to such a pass that home delivery of drugs had started in Punjab”.
Ayali, who has been local MLA, said that Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) former legislator HS Phoolka had betrayed the people’s trust after being given a massive mandate in 2017. “Phoolka stood for election in the hope of becoming the Chief Minister, but when this did not come about, he ran away,” he said. “Now similarly, another outsider – Sandeep Sandhu – had been fielded by the Congress party. Sandeep Sandhu did not know which way went where. He does not know names of 10 villages. You have to decide - to choose apna or begana,” he made a vote appeal.