The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is all set to replace at least 25 of its sitting legislators and field 25 new faces in their place in the forthcoming Punjab Assembly polls, scheduled to be held early next year.
Giving a clear indication of cutting tickets of around 25 sitting MlAs, SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Friday said that the declaration of its candidates was a mere formality and on most of the seats, the candidates of the party have already been informed.
Sukhbir said the change in party candidates for Phillaur, Banga, Patiala rural, Sanaur and Amloh was almost final.
On the issue of swapping seats with its ally BJP, Sukhbir said that a meeting between both the alliance parties was expected soon and the matter would be taken up in the meet.
launching a scathing attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he said that its morality has rotten to such an extent that it is accepting and forging alliance with people like Jagmeet Singh Brar who has been discarded by every political dispensation.
He said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had got nothing to do with the welfare of the state and its people instead he had hidden intentions to be the Chief Minister of the State.
“Kejriwal has planned to use Punjab as a battleground to further his ambitions of becoming leader of anti-Modi platform to emerge on the center stage of the country’s politics,” he said.
Sukhbir said that an agitationist that Kejriwal is, cannot spell out even a single progress centric measure of his government in Delhi.
Branding Kejriwal as a responsibility shirker, he said that if voted to power, Kejriwal would spell doom for state’s farming community as his constant feuds with the Union Government would result in smooth procurement, payments to farmers and non-lifting of wheat and paddy from the mandis as well as godowns.
labeling AAP as a bunch of atheists, Sukhbir said that these people indulge in desecration of holy books, have no regard for the cultural traditions of Punjab and its state observers are facing the ire of people owing to charges of moral turpitude in the state.
Referring to the announcement of making Amritsar a holy city by Kejriwal, he said that first AAP leader should make his own party holy especially his party MP Bhagwant Mann, who has appeared in inebriated state to pay his obeisance to Sri Guru Granth Sahib and afterwards concentrate on Amritsar.
In a lighter vein, Sukhbir said that Kejriwal should expel those 63 people from his party whose sting CDs he accuses, are lying with him (Deputy Chief Minister). He made it clear that he has no such CD.
Taking the newly-formed ‘fourth front’ head on, Sukhbir branded its main leader Navjot Singh Sidhu as a rank opportunist who only wants to grab power and even exploits the name of revolutionary martyrs for the purpose but the people of Punjab have seen through their devious game plan and would give them a befitting reply. He also dismissed ‘Bains brothers’, MlAs from ludhiana, as an undisciplined lot.
Not sparing Congress, Sukhbir said that it is really unfortunate that Congress used today’s occasion to pay gratitude to Baba Sahib Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar for furthering its political agenda in the Assembly.
Calling Congress the main opponent of the SAD-BJP government, he said that its leader Sunil Jakhar is sidelined within his own party and has developed a habit of talking without facts to create sensationalism and hog the limelight.
Calling Congress a confused party, he said that nowadays, everything in Congress is decided by PK (Prashant Kishore).