Despite facing defeat on eight seats out of 10 it contested in recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday hailed its performance by increasing the vote share as compared to the previous general elections of 2014.
The party, during its core committee meeting, expressed “deep gratitude to the people of Punjab”, and also gave credit to the party cadre of both the SAD-BJP alliance partners for substantially increasing the vote share to log 51 lakh votes and managed to take a lead in 35 assembly segments even as it was a close second in 16 seats.
The party especially thanked four lakh voters who abandoned the Congress to repose faith in the SAD compared with the 2017 Vidhan Sabha poll.
SAD also thanked the voters for seven percent jump in the alliance vote share – from 30 to 37 percent. “In fact, SAD is the only party to improve its vote share as the share of the Congress and AAP actually fell significantly,” the core committee noted in its meeting.
The party also thanked the workers and leaders of the SAD-BJP alliance for their selfless work for the success of the alliance candidates. The alliance had won 17 seats in the 2017 Vidhan Sabha poll which it more than doubled during this poll.
On the other hand, four lakh voters rebuffed the Congress because of its anti-Punjab and anti-people policies. Out of the 35 Vidhan Sabha segments in which the alliance led over all the rest, the SAD alone accounted for 21 and the BJP 14, said the resolution.
A Resolution passed by the SAD Core Committee placed on record its “appreciation and gratitude” to the party president Sukhbir Badal for his “tireless and dynamic leadership during this poll campaign, going around the State and mixing with lakhs of workers and other Punjabis”.
The party also congratulated Sukhbir for registering the biggest win in these elections defeating his Congress rival by two lakh votes. Besides, the party also thanked Harsimrat Kaur Badal on her victory despite the Congress and all the so-called panthic elements conspiring against her.
The party noted with satisfaction that “Akal Purakh responded positively to the prayer of the SAD president Sukhbir Badal and decimated all those who committed or planned the sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The Congress president was leading the Congress-sponsored elements who had formed the so-called Morchas on the sacrilege issue. He was demolished as were his co-conspirators like Sukhpal Khaira, Baljeet Singh Daduwal, Dhian Singh Mand, Simranjit Singh Mann, and the so-called Taksalis”.
“All of them pretended to contest on the issue of sacrilege and all of them were thrown out by the people, especially by the Sikhs, and they lost their security deposits – a divine justice,” said the resolution.
The core panel’s another resolution expressed “grave concern” over the growing incidents of rape and murder in the State like the one at Dhuri in which a four-year-old child became a victim of the government’s failure to control lawless elements.
The party also expressed deep shock over an incident in which a teacher committed suicide following the government’s refusal to consider the genuine demand of contractual teachers who were being forced to accept monthly salary of Rs 15,000 from the earlier Rs 40,000.
Demanding immediate reversal of the inhuman decision to reduce teacher salaries, the Core Committee said that it would not allow such injustice against teachers and would stand by them and force the government to take back this anti-people step.