Ahead of BJP’s May 2 mega workers’ meet, SAD-Joshi spar in Amritsar

Sunday, 26/04/2015

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Amritsar : Ahead of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) May 2 mega party workers’ meet, to be addressed by party’s national chief Amit Shah here, the fissures have once again cropped up between alliance partners Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and BJP. The leaders from the two parties, sharing power in the state, are once again at loggerheads with local SAD leaders targeting state Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi over ‘discrimination’ in allocating funds for the development in the ‘holy city.’

Though tiffs between SAD and Joshi are not new as the latter had recently hit hard at the top SAD leadership for the ‘murderous attack’ on his younger brother Raja Joshi in Tarn Taran during corporation elections, local SAD leaders are for the first time demanding his expulsion from Badal Cabinet. SAD’s Amritsar chief Upkar Singh Sandhu has threatened to organise protests in front of Shah during his visit, if Joshi ‘did not mend his ways.’

Amid Sandhu’s blames that Joshi is running the Local Bodies Department as his personal fiefdom, Joshi has not only raked up the issue of drugs but also put a frontal attack through municipal councillors close to him. They blamed the SAD for derailing the minister’s ongoing development agenda for the city.

“Joshi is committed to the development of Amritsar. We do not understand why Sandhu is against development?,” said Joshi’s close aide R P Maini.

In a public outburst, Sandhu had sought the removal of Joshi from the state government, alleging that he was indulging in encroachments and was discriminating with SAD in alloting funds for development. “He (Joshi) cannot see beyond his Amritsar-North assembly constituency when it comes to providing funds,” Sandhu alleged, adding that the minister is running Local Bodies Department like a private company, indulging in favouritism and therefore, should be shown the door from the state Cabinet.

Worry was writ large on the face of Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma, who was in the city on Saturday, to take stock of arrangements for the party’s workers’ meet. Though he defended Joshi over the allegations, but asserted that the differences, if any, would be sorted out by holding talks. He said that the whole party was geared up for the first such mega meeting of the party after NDA came to power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre.

More than 15,000 partyworkers are expected to arrive from all over the state. The venue chosen is the same where Shah was to address a public rally against drugs a few months back, but same was postponed due to Delhi elections. Amritsar MP and Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh had then announced to hold parallel rally on the same issue. Sharma and other leaders, who expressed satisfaction over the arrangements, said that the party was prepared for the mega event and there was no friction within the SAD-BJP alliance.