Punjab polls: Local SAD leaders up in arms against Mohali ticket to Sohana
Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) decision to pick Parvinder Singh Sohana, 41, as its candidate from Mohali for the upcoming state assembly elections has not gone down well with the local leaders.
Strongly opposing Sohana’s candidature, they said the party did not take their views before giving him a ticket and they will hold a meeting on Monday to decide the further course of action.
Avtar Singh Mauli, SAD leader and block samiti member from Mauli Baidwan, said the party allotted the ticket without consulting any member. “Sohana is not acceptable to us, we oppose his candidature,” he said.
Stating that all local leaders were upset with the decision, Gurmeet Singh Shampur, senior vice-president of SAD’s BC cell, Mohali, said on Monday, around 30 leaders, including sarpanches, block samiti and zila parishad members, will hold a meeting regarding this, followed by a media interaction.
Another senior Akali leader, on the condition of anonymity, said several senior leaders met on Sunday as well and decided to convey their dejection to party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. “How can the party give the ticket to a traitor, who deserted the party?” he questioned.
On the other hand, speaking to HT, Sohana said there can be differences in a family, but these will be sorted out. “SAD will put up a united face and win the elections with a thumping majority,” he said.
A former Labourfed chairman, Sohana, who was holding the post of Youth Akali Dal (Mohali) president, left the SAD in January last year before the municipal corporation elections, owing to differences with former member of Parliament Prem Singh Chandumajra.
He joined hands with the Azad group, led by former mayor Kulwant Singh, following which the SAD expelled him from the party. In the elections, the Azad group won 11 of the total 50 seats, with his wife, Harjinder Kaur, being one of the group’s winning candidates. While 37 seats went to Congress, the SAD drew a blank.
Later in October last year, Sohana, along with his wife and supporters, returned to the SAD in the presence of party president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who assured him and his team members due honour and recognition in the party.
Less time to read?
Try Quickreads
-
Delhi: Drain lines in 39 unauthorised colonies to help clean Yamuna
The decisions were taken in the meeting of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on Friday at the Delhi secretariat and a government official later said the move was in line with the Arvind Kejriwal government’s larger vision of cleaning the Yamuna.
-
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde rebukes MLAs for dancing atop tables
Deepak Kesarkar, an MLA who represents Sawantwadi, said that after his return from Mumbai on Thursday night, the newly sworn-in chief minister asked the MLAs to behave in a “more mature fashion”.
-
Maharashtra: Metro-3 depot back in Aarey Colony
In October 2019, the Bombay high court (HC) quashed a clutch of petition by environmentalists that sought to declare a 33-acre plot in the city’s green lung as a legal forest under the Indian Forest Act (1927). This patch was demarcated in 2013 to construct a car shed for the upcoming Metro 3 line.
-
How Bal Thackeray handled rebellion in ranks
If there is something that stands out in the rebellion led by Eknath Shinde and his predecessors like Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray, it is the way in which the Shiv Sena leadership and even the ordinary Shiv Sainik responded to the crisis. If in the past the grassroots workers rallied around Balasaheb Thackeray, Sena leaders today admit to a virtual paralysis that has set in the party following the mass desertions led by Eknath Shinde.
-
Sharad Pawar gets I-T notice over poll affidavits; terms it ‘love letter’
Terming the notice as a “love letter”, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said it showed the qualitative difference with which central agencies act towards leaders of the opposition and those in the government.
