Deputy CM calls for strengthening party without BJP

With relations between alliance partners Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) witnessing a new low in the past few days, the SAD seems to be stressing on strengthening the party without BJP support.

This was evident from the speech of SAD president and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in Bathinda on Friday where he laid stress on strengthening SAD without even making a mention of alliance partner BJP.

Addressing people during the inauguration of Ring Road Phase II here, Sukhbir Badal said the SAD had ensured the development of Bathinda and if any other party formed the government in the state, it would not take care of the city.

Instead of asking for strengthening the SAD-BJP alliance to seek votes during polls, the deputy chief minister chose to ignore the BJP's topic altogether.

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had also refrained from mentioning the Modi government during his address at the 42nd death anniversary of former SAD president Sant Fateh Singh in Badiala in Maur near Bathinda on Thursday.

Sukhbir Badal said they had governments at the centre and the state which would speed up development work and blamed the UPA government for its partisan attitude towards the state which led to the delay in the Ring Road project.

In his first public function in Bathinda after the parliamentary elections, Sukhbir Badal could not hide his pain of the party having trailed behind the Congress by a big margin in the Bathinda (urban) assembly segment.

"We have done so much work in Bathinda city but people haven't done justice to us. Whatever you desired, we delivered, but I can't understand why people didn't vote for us," said Sukhbir Badal, adding that Bathinda was like family and the Badals would continue serving the people.

SAD MP and union food processing industry minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal had won from Bathinda parliamentary constituency, considered as Badal's bastion, by a slender margin of over 19,000 votes but had trailed behind the Congress candidate by over 29,000 votes in Bathinda (urban) assembly segment despite the ruling alliance having made tall claims of pursuing development work worth crores.