SAD to hold organise in Saharanpur on Sept 18

| | Lucknow | in Lucknow

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is trying to expand its footprints in Uttar Pradesh before the 2019 general election and has announced to organise a rally in Saharanpur on September 18. 

The rally will be addressed by former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Gobind Singh Longewal, Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee president Manjit Singh and Akali Dal MP Prem Singh Chandumazra.

SAD’s Uttar Pradesh chief Gurpreet Singh Bagga said a decision to organise the rally was taken during his meeting with Sukhbir Singh Badal in Delhi last week. 

The rally is an attempt to make inroads into other states, especially UP and the hill state of Uttarakhand, particularly the Terai region, where  the community is in large numbers.

Besides its core strength in Punjab, the party has footprints in Delhi, where it contests election in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. It also dabbles in Haryana politics with a poll pact with the INLD, presently the principal opposition in the state. 

Bagga said the SAD was yet to decide on contesting the 2019 election in UP and a final call would be taken by party chief Prakash Singh Badal. 

He said the SAD-BJP alliance was confined to Punjab, Haryana and Delhi and no such understanding existed in UP.

With the presence of a sizeable Sikh population in urban pockets of UP, especially big cities and towns like Lucknow, Saharanpur, Meerut, Kanpur, Bijnor, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar and Pilibhit, SAD state leaders feel that there is reason to be optimistic.

Bagga said that the Saharanpur rally was in the pipeline for some time but got Badal’s nod only recently. 

“There is big demand from the Punjabi community for Sukhbir Singh and SGPC president to address the rally,” Bagga said. 

“Support of gurudwaras in the state will be solicited for the rally’s success. Issues likely to figure in the rally include lack of representation of Punjabis in government jobs and political parties. The community has been neglected by all successive governments in the state,” Bagga said.

Other issues include non-payment of compensation to victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, justice in the killing of seven Sikhs in Pilibhit jail and in riots against Sikhs in Saharanpur over a disputed construction of a gurudwara during the previous Akhilesh Yadav regime.