All set to strengthen its reach and organisational structure in Uttar Pradesh (UP), the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday announced to contest 2017 UP assembly elections along with like-minded parties in order to ensure due recognition for Sikhs and the Punjabi community in the State.
Elaborating the agenda for UP in a meeting held at Delhi today, the SAD president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said that SAD would launch a concerted campaign in UP in order to redress the problems being faced there by Sikhs and Punjabi community besides ameliorating their lot.
For the purpose, the necessity of having an organized structure of the party in UP is being carefully looked into and the needful would be done soon.
Sukhbir also formed a five-member committee to focus on strengthening the SAD in UP and identify the potential 40-45 seats it plans to contest in the upcoming polls keeping in view the number of Sikhs and Punjabi’s population.
The committee comprising Rajya Sabha MP Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Sri Anandpur Sahib MP Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra, Cabinet minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, party’s Delhi unit President and DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK and senior leader Avtar Singh Hit.
The panel would submit its report to the SAD president within two weeks.
Putting all the speculations to rest, he said that the alliance with BJP is rock solid and intact. On the occasion, UP’s former Chief Secretary Rai Singh was appointed party in-charge of UP.
Divulging more, Sukhbir said that Sikhs and Punjabi community has done a lot for the development of the state and are the prime contributors to the parameters of progressive index there. But still, the Punjabi community has not got its due in UP which explains and justifies the need for SAD to step in to cater to their needs and aspirations, he said.
“SAD stands for respecting and protecting the rights of all religious groups and sects besides being the sole authentic representative voice of the Sikhs which mirrors their desires…Being the second oldest party in the country’s polity, the SAD has a glorious history of playing a yeoman’s role in freedom movement and after independence too, it was always in the forefront for the sake of Punjabi’s, Sikhs and every other community which made it the epitome of secularism,” he said.
SAD chief further said that it is the motive of the SAD to harness the capabilities of UP-based Punjabi’s and Sikhs by bringing them all under the unified banner of SAD because until now various political dispensations took advantage of them by promising them the moon and applying use and throw policy with regard to them.
“But now, with the advent of SAD in UP, nobody would dare to even dream of using Sikhs and the Punjabi community as political tools for vote bank purposes,” avowed Sukhbir.