The people of Lambi on Sunday welcomed their Congress candidate and chief ministerial candidate Captain Amarinder Singh with open arms as he stormed the citadel of Akali chief minister Parkash Singh Badal with an all-out attack on the Badals, along with their ministers and OSDs, promising to throw them all into jail for destroying the lives of the people.
Captain Amarinder lambasted Badal for the growing incidents of sacrilege in the state, which he said was a clear attempt by the Akalis to divide Punjab on communal lines, and asserted that the Akali stalwart would have to pay for his sins.He also came down heavily on Badal for the misdeeds of his ministers, pointing out that while Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia was openly trading in drugs, Agriculture Minister Tota Singh had ruined the state’s agriculture by supplying fake seeds and pesticides. “How can Badal claim not to know about what’s happening in his own backyard,” Captain Amarinder asked, amid loud cheers.Addressing rallies in Panjwan and Sarawan Bodla, he promised to throw them all, along with Sukhbir Badal’s OSDs- Dyal Singh Kolianwal (SGPC member), Satinderjee Singh Mantta, as well as his close aide Tejinder Singh Middhukhera, into jail for the atrocities committed on the people of Punjab.
The PPCC president also lashed out AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal as a rank outsider and a liar of the first order, with no interest in the welfare of Punjab or its people. Kejriwal will never protect the interests of the state, said Captain Amarinder, pinning down the AAP leader on the widespread corruption and other crimes, rape and sex scandals, in which his own party leaders were embroiled.With many of his own MLAs in Delhi in jail on various criminal charges, and he himself under probe in a corruption case along with his brother-in-law, Kejriwal’s credentials had been blasted to smithereens and his tall claims of providing good governance had been completely exposed in Delhi, Captain Amarinder pointed out, warning the people against handing over their interests to a corrupt liar like Kejriwal.Asserting that he would give the Akalis a massive beating all over Punjab, where the Congress party’s internal analysis was giving SAD no more than 14 seats, Captain Amarinder explained that he had been unable to come to Lambi after filing his nomination papers as he was going all over the state to ensure that the Badals are wiped out from Punjab for good.
Reacting to Sukhbir’s promise of loan waiver for farmers, Captain Amarinder asked, to humungous response, “was he sleeping the last 10 years?” Expressing concern over the suicides by farmers in Punjab, he reiterated his promise to waive off all their loans immediately after coming to power.Referring to the SYL issue, Captain Amarinder said construction of the canal, which the Akalis had failed to stop and which Arvind Kejriwal would allow in the interest of his native state of Haryana, would adversely affected 6 lakh families in southern Punjab. “We cannot allow that to happen at any cost,” he declared.Captain Amarinder’s remarks came even as, at Panjwan, the Haryana Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee extended its support to the Punjab Congress in the assembly polls.
The PPCC president lamented the injustice meted out to Punjab in water-sharing, which had enabled Haryana to get more water despite being a smaller state post reorganization.In Panjwan, Muktsar DCC president Gurmeet Khudian said Badals’ tyranny was worse than that of Aurangzeb. Sukhbir’s OSDs were running a reign of terror in Punjab, he said, charging the Badals with spreading communal polarization. He cited the increase in the incidents of sacrilege and the crash in land prices under the Badal regime to underline the mess prevailing in Punjab after 10 years of their rule. Only the Congress, he said, could rescue the state and its people from the prevailing conditions.Sharing the stage with Captain Amarinder was Mahesh Indersingh Badal, who had quit SAD some weeks back, alleging intimidation by Sukhbir and attempt to implicate him in false case by the local police.