Ludhiana, Mar 14 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday said every party has the right to take its own decision on alliances, reacting to the BJP’s announcement to go solo in the 2027 Punjab election. He said SAD too had contested the 2024 parliamentary elections alone.
“For us, the interests of Punjab and Punjabis are supreme, sovereign and above everything else,” he said. Badal said would fight for the rights of Punjab and Punjabis and had complete faith that his party would secure a landslide victory in the 2027 election.
The politician’s remarks came hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement that the BJP would fight the 2027 assembly polls alone.
Badal claimed that SAD was different from Delhi-based parties, which only come to rule. “Earlier, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was given many allurements, but he chose to remain in jail for 16 years rather than compromise the rights of the state. I will also continue to fight for the rights of Punjab. “I have full faith in the wisdom of Punjabis who realise they have been repeatedly betrayed at the hands of the parties of Delhi. I am confident they will hand 100 seats to the SAD in the forthcoming assembly elections,” he said. Earlier at a gathering, Badal said, “Can Amit Shah (home minister) or Modi ji have the same concern for you as the Badal family or the SAD?” Badal said the SAD has always stood with Punjabis, be it the last year’s floods when, he alleged, the AAP government, as well as the Centre, abandoned Punjabis to their own fate. “Many leaders left the party thinking it’s finished. Now the same leaders are coming back and virtually breaking down my doors to seek readmission. But my question to them is, why did you leave? People who do change with the wind cannot be trusted,” he said, addressing the gathering. Badal claimed that the next SAD government would eradicate gangsters and the drug mafia from the state. “We will bring in legislation to deny bail to gangsters and drug lords and seize their complete properties,” he said. He added, “I will not let one drop of industrial or sewerage effluent enter the Sutlej and Beas rivers. The violators will be dealt with sternly. This is absolutely essential to tackle the scourge of cancer in the Malwa belt.” The SAD president said his party would not allow water to flow into the Rajasthan canal once it comes to power. He said the Congress was responsible for handing over Punjab’s waters to Rajasthan and that he was committed to correcting this “historic injustice.” PTI COR CHS VN VN
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