Dr Sidhu demands deputy CM's post for BJP

Even as deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday played down the recent differences between the SAD and the BJP in Punjab, chief parliamentary secretary and BJP MLA Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu demanded that the deputy chief minister's post should go to the BJP.

Even as deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday played down the recent differences between the SAD and the BJP in Punjab, chief parliamentary secretary and BJP MLA Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu demanded that the deputy chief minister's post should go to the BJP.

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Dr Sidhu claimed that the BJP workers were unhappy as they were ignored by officials. "The party workers are upset. There is a general feeling that the BJP workers in Punjab are not given priority as officials often do not listen to their problems."

She said the BJP workers also felt that they were not given the similar hearing as the Akali Dal workers, which demoralised them. In such a scenario, it was important that the state had the deputy chief minister from the BJP, she added.

The CPS, who has been continuously demanding that the BJP go it alone in the 2017 assembly polls, reacted to the recent statement by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal that if the SAD-BJP alliance broke, it could be a threat to peace in Punjab, saying, "A mature politician like Badal should not issue such statements. It doesn't look good when a person of Badal's stature says such things."