GIDDERBAHA: The Shiromani Akali Dal’s Punjab Bachao Yatra restarted today after a short hiatus with party president Sukhbir Singh Badal giving a clarion call to Punjabis to repose faith in their own regional party in all thirteen Lok Sabha seats in the forthcoming parliamentary election.
The SAD president who toured Gidderbaha and Muktsar assembly constituencies in an open jeep accompanied by thousands of vehicles including tractors, cars and motorcycles to the tunes of “Utho ve Sher Punjabio Punjab Bacha lo”, said “the mood of the people is before everyone to see. They have decided to oust the corrupt, anti-Sikh and anti Punjabi Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and repose faith in the SAD which has a proven track record of speedy development, peace and prosperity for all”.
Accompanied with Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon in Gidderbaha and Kanwarjit Singh Rozy Barkandi in Muktsar, the SAD president was profusely showered with flowers at various stops even as people from all walks of life vied with each other to meet and greet him. In Muktsar the cavalcade of vehicles stretched for a record five kilometers besides the presence of thousands of people. Mr Badal appealed to the people to strengthen Dimpy Dhilon and Rozy Barkandi. “If you strengthen them you strengthen me and pave the way for the establishment of a SAD government in the State”, he added.
Addressing the people at Kauni village, Mr Badal reminisced how he used to work as the election incharge of the village during former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s election from Gidderbaha. “Badal Sahab served this constituency for years. I assure you I will maintain the same relationship which Badal Sahab maintained with you”. In Muktsar too, the SAD president said “I have done election duty in this constituency along with Badal Sahab on numerous occasions. Most of you have Badal Sahab’s pictures in your homes. Now the time has come to again repose trust in your own party”.
Mr Badal also led a frontal attack on chief minister Bhagwant Mann stating “you all have witnessed how the chief minister behaved like a mentally deranged person in the Vidhan Sabha recently. Due to our mistakes a mad man has become chief minister of our State. He has befooled everyone in the name of ‘badlav’ once. Don’t let it happen again”. He said the SAD had already exposed the falsehoods of AAP be it the betrayal done unto women who were yet to receive the allowance of Rs 1, 000 per month for two years now or youth who were denied jobs despite tall promises. It is time to make the Master (Arvind Kejriwal) and his Puppet (Bhagwant Mann) pay for their misdeeds”, Mr Badal added.
Asserting that the chief minister and his boss Arvind Kejriwal were busy indulging in cheap publicity stunts, Mr Badal said “Punjab is suffering but Bhagwant Mann is busy hosting Kejriwal in Punjab by frittering away crores of public funds. This corrupt government has failed to do any development work or build a single infrastructure project in the last two years during the course of which it has bankrupted the State by borrowing an unprecedented Rs 66, 000 crore.