After sounding a poll bugle in the neighbouring Haryana, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is all set to spread its wings further to the State of Uttar Pradesh.
A fortnight after its successful rally at Pipli, the Sikh panthic party will now be holding a show of its strength on the land of lord Rama and lord Krishna, which notably also has a respectable Sikh population, on September 21.
Just like in Haryana, the party would only be focussing on the Sikh voters who hold the key in over a dozen assembly constituencies in the state’s Terai region. Uttar Pradesh has many Sikh-dominated districts including Pilibhit, lakhimpur Kheri, Shahjahanpur, which holds prominence in terms of votes.
What substantiates the importance of Sikh voters in Uttar Pradesh was that a former Akali leader and Union Minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia was inducted as the Minister by the previous Akhilesh Yadav Government.
As per available figures, Punjabis have direct influence in 50 out of the total of 404 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.
SAD’s September 21 rally at Saharanpur was earlier scheduled for September 18. But with the forthcoming zila parishad and block samiti elections on September 19, the party has decided to revise the date during a meeting on Monday at New Delhi which was attended by the SAD leaders from Uttar Pradesh besides the functionaries of about 50 gurdwaras from far-flung areas of UP.
The proposed rally would be addressed by SAD president Sukhbir Badal and the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Gobind Singh longowal.
Uttar Pradesh SAD in-charge and lok Sabha MP Prem Singh Chandumajra said that the senior party leaders, mostly all hailing from Punjab, would be busy with the panchayat polls there.
However, Sukhbir has asked the UP leaders to continue with their preparation for the event and strengthening the party’s organisational structure to expand its base further.
The party, during its meeting, pointed that the Punjabis are feeling marginalised in Uttar Pradesh, and they were feeling left out from the political process, participating in the decision making process, and representation in the government jobs.
A senior SAD leader told The Pioneer that our main focus, as of now, is to expand party;s base, strengthen it in other states too, and later deciding on the political strategy or contesting the elections.
SAD leader said that, other than Punjab, the party is gearing up for elections in Haryana where the SAD president had already announced to contest all elections in Haryana.
On the other hand, the Congress party has dubbed the SAD’s move to expand further than Punjab, as an attempt to find new abode.
Punjab Cabinet Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu stressed that SAD is looking for avenues outside Punjab as the people of the state have rejected them.
He said that the Sikhs, living in UP, are wise and they have seen all the session of the Vidhan Sabha live. “After seeing SAD’s performance, they will not support them,” he added.
Sidhu said that the people of Punjab have started questioning the Akali Dal on the issue of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, and that was the main reason why the Akalis are running away from Punjab.