Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 15

In a unique promise to the electorate, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said if it is voted to power in the 2022 Assembly elections, it will have two Deputy Chief Ministers — one from the Dalit community and the other from the Punjabi Hindu community.

To move motion in Parliament on farm laws

• SAD president Sukhbir Badal announced that the party would move an adjournment motion, demanding repeal of the farm laws, in the forthcoming session of Parliament
• He urged all parties to support the motion so that it could be taken up for discussion
• About a public whip issued by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, he said the country knew that if any party had issued a whip to vote against the three laws when they were presented, it was SAD
• Congress and AAP boycotted the proceedings, leaving it to us to take a stand against the laws by voting against those, Sukhbir added

Earlier, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal had announced that the party would reserve the post of the Deputy CM for a Dalit leader. After some a re-think on the matter, which seems to be aimed at wooing Hindu voters, Sukhbir today said the party would have not one but two Deputy Chief Ministers.

Interestingly, the promise to appoint a Dalit Deputy CM was made on April 14, while the poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has a strong base among Dalits, was announced on June 12. The incumbent Congress government does not have a post of the Deputy CM. The Aam Aadmi Party or the BJP also have not announced any such post so far.

Sukhbir did not take questions from mediapersons on who would be the CM face, though party leaders said it was understood that the party chief would be the CM if it was elected to power.

Sukhbir had called a hurried press conference today evening after chairing the core committee meeting of the party. He said the SAD-BSP government truly represented the composite Punjabi culture and was a symbol of complete Punjabi unity, peace and communal harmony as espoused by five-time CM Parkash Singh Badal.

He said: “We understand there are external forces that want to disturb the peace of Punjab by pitching communities against each other. We want to guarantee Punjabis that the SAD will continue to follow the policies of Parkash Singh Badal under whom all religions were respected and honoured.”