Ahead of the 2024 parliamentary polls, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) appears stepping up its election campaign, as the party on Thursday began its ‘Punjab Bachao Yatra’ (Save Punjab) march from Punjab’s Amritsar to consolidate its electoral base and expose what it terms “misdeeds” of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, meanwhile hit out at the SAD and asked them to explain from whom they are trying to save the State as he blamed them for “looting” the State during their regime.
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who started the march from Attari in Amritsar raised the demand for re-opening of the international border with Pakistan to facilitate trade between the two countries besides demanding enhancement in compensation to farmers tilling land beyond the barbed wire fence in Indian territory.
The SAD president said “We will expose all the falsehoods of AAP and its Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann during the next month. We will prove that this party of outsiders and its puppet Chief Minister who is controlled from Delhi can never deliver justice to Punjabis.”
He said the “Punjab Bachao Yatra would lay the foundation for the ouster of the corrupt, scam-ridden, anti- Sikh and anti-Punjabi AAP government and result in the establishing of a time tested pro- people government led by the SAD.”
In Chandigarh, speaking at an event, Mr. Mann took a jibe over Akali Dal’s ‘Punjab Bachao Yatra’. He alleged that Akali leaders have looted the State for 15 years, and they should explain from whom they are trying to save the State. He said that Akalis have plundered the State mercilessly besides bruising the psyche of Punjabis emotionally and patronising several mafias in the State.
“The people are well aware of the dubious character of the Akalis and the Badal family due to which their theatricals won’t work now,” he added.
