Vijay Sampla along with SAD president Sukhbir Badal during the rally in Jalandhar Sunday. (Express Photo)
Punjab BJP on Sunday organised ‘Bajao Dhol, Kholo Pol’ rally to show the state unit’s strength in the presence of its alliance partner, SAD. The rally at Jalandhar was attended by both Punjab BJP chief Vijay Sampla and SAD chief Sukhbir Badal. At the rally, pointing towards Sukhbir, Sampla said that now Badal shouldn’t say “BJP de palle kuchh ni (BJP has nothing to show)”. Both BJP and SAD chiefs began rally by beating a dhol (drum) first and stressed on continuation of SAD-BJP alliance. “Hindustan rahe na rahe, Akali Dal te Bhajpa da gathjorh jarur rahega. (India may or may not remain, SAD-BJP alliance is here to stay).”
Both leaders even expressed their wish to see state Assembly elections being conducted along with Lok Sabha elections of 2019.
Attacking the state’s Congress government, Sampla said that there was not a single efficient minister in the state government and that the state BJP will participate in the protest announced by SAD on March 20 to gherao the state Assembly.
Sukhbir Badal said that Captatin Amarinder Singh’s government had failed on all the accounts in the first year of its rule.
On Sampla’s statement about the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, SAD president Sukhbir Badal appealed to the BJP leadership they should request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold Assembly elections along with Lok Sabha elections in 2019. “BJP will form the government with Punjab contributing all the 13 Lok Sabha seats and alliance will form government in Punjab too,” said Sukhbir Badal.
He termed Congress as the “real enemy of Punjab”. About AAP chief Arvind Krjriwal’s apology to former state minister Bikram Singh Majithia, he said that now that AAP has apologised, Captain must reply whether drugs have been eradicated from Punjab after one year of forming his government.
Former Minister Bikram Majithia, while commenting on the apology of AAP chief and Delhi CM Arvinder Kejriwal, said those who follow the politics of lies, meet such a fate. Without taking the name of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, Majithia said people ask him whether he has apologised or not. He added: “Jhota maran naal juan aape mar jadiyan ne (lice also die with the death of the bull).”
Adopting an aggressive stand on Kejriwal’s apology, Majithia said that the insult was to Punjab’s youth by branding them as drug addicts.
BJP national vice president Avinash Rai Khanna said that Captain Amarinder, who took an oath of eradicating the malaise of drugs from Punjab with ‘Gutka Sahib’ (Sikh religious book) in hand, had forgotten all about it.