Calling the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi a “candy kid,” Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday said the Congress leader was too busy with chocolates and popsicles to pay attention to his party’s beleaguered candidates, especially in this State.
Mr. Badal was talking to The Hindu after addressing a rally in Fatehgarh Sahib, where he described Punjab Congress leaders as a pack of “suicide bombers” working against their own candidates.
“Amarinder Singh wants Partap Singh Bajwa defeated in Gurdaspur, Bajwa wants Amarinder to lose in Amritsar, then Amarinder wants Vijay Inder Singla to lose in Sangrur, while Singla is working for the defeat of Preneet Kaur in Patiala.”
Claiming that the Congress had been wiped out in West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Badal predicted that the party would go into oblivion in Punjab also after the Lok Sabha polls.
Scoffing at top Congress leaders who were in the fray in Punjab, Mr. Badal said the so-called “big guns” were actually relics of the era of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the British era. Most of them were spent ammunition, seeking survival.”
Major package“First we shall ensure that Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa [former Union Minister in the NDA regime] becomes a minister in the next National Democratic Alliance government also,” he said breaking into a guffaw. But on a serious note, he said the Akali Dal and people of Punjab would expect a major package to revive its economy. Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh had already prepared a blueprint to ensure that agriculture became profitable once again, said Mr. Badal.
Earlier addressing the gathering, Mr. Badal avoided any mention of Gujarat Chief Minsiter and the BJP prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, keeping in view the sizable Muslim population in the nearby Malerkotla town and surrounding villages.
Mr. Badal assured the people that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would have a major role in NDA decisions including raising prices of farm produce and reining in inflation.
