Congress sees mid-term polls
Wednesday, 31/12/2014
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CHANDIGARH: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday predicted mid-term polls in the state, even asking its party cadres to be ready for that, besides taking a dig at deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal’s Sunday announcement for an anti-BSF protest along the India-Pakistan border.
Playing up the differences between the Shiromani Akali Dal ( SAD) and the BJP in the state, Bajwa in a statement here appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to drop Harsimrat Badal from the union cabinet “immediately”.
He suggested to Modi that it is in the interest of national security to withdraw the BJP from the SAD-BJP alliance and go in for a fresh mandate (in Punjab), keeping in view the situation caused by the “highly confrontationist stand of the BJP and SAD”.
“Sukhbir Badal, who is husband of Harsimrat Badal, is issuing secessionist statements and instigating people to protest against the BSF at the border,” Bajwa added. He said it was not justified to keep Harsimrat in the cabinet keeping in view the “flaring situation caused by such anti-national stand” and statement by her husband who is the deputy CM-cum-home minister of Punjab.
DIG AT SAD’S U-TURN
While Bajwa skipped Tuesday’s developments wherein chief minister Parkash Singh Badal ruled out any antiBSF stance of the SAD, senior Congress MLA Rana Gurjit pooh-poohed the SAD’s U-turn on Sukhbir’s announcement for the protest dharnas along the border.
“The Akalis are confused and panic-stricken over its earlier announcement of protests against the BSF along the IndiaPakistan border,” Rana Gurjit said in a statement, pointing out senior Badal’s clarification of doing away with any anti-BSF or anti-Centre stance of the SAD.
‘AKALIS FEAR EXPOSURE’
Former DGP (prisons) Shashi Kant on Tuesday said the Akalis feared “exposure” on the drugs issue, dubbing this as the reason for the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) U-turn against the BSF for the cross-border drug smuggling. Shashi Kant had been at loggerheads with former jails minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur during his tenure as DGP (prisons) following the riots that took place inside the Kapurthala central jail that exposed the presence of drug addicts and drugs inside the prison.
