The Shiromani Akali Dal were first off the block in hitting the election mode for Lok Sabha-2014 as the Manifesto Committee of the party held its first meeting at the arty headquarters here this afternoon.The meeting, chaired by the SAD Secretary General Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa deliberated for over two hours upon the party's likely vision statement for the parliamentary poll campaign, according to Harcharan Bains, spokesman of the Committee.
Senior Akali leaders including Jathedar Tota Singh, Party's General Secretaries Sewa Singh Sekhwan, Mr. Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, Professor Prem SIngh Chandumajra were also present.SAD Secretary Dr. Daljit SIngh Cheema, who is also the Member Secretary of th Manifesto Committee, conducted the proceedings. Talking to newsmen after the meeting, Mr. Harcharan Bains said that the committee would solicit views of various wings of the party, as also consult a wide spectrum of opinion makers to ensure that the party's manifesto truly reflected the aspirations of the people. "As a mass based party, we do not believe in the top-down approach and always allow our vision to be shaped by in-puts from the grass-roots, making the opinions, sentiments and aspirations of the people the central component of our manifesto. That approach will be followed this time too, and that is the brief given to the Committee by the party president Sardar Sukhbir SIngh Badal and the Chief Minister Sardar Parkash Singh Badal." The Committee, which will meet again on January 31 at Chandigarh, will get direct feed-backs from various sections of people, especially youth, women, dalits, farmers, trade and industry and farmers, apart from employees. Mr. Bains said that the SAD stood for the setting up of a genuinely federal structure in the country as it believed that centralisation of authority in the country has reduced the states the position of beggars and dissipated the development potential of the country as a whole.