BASSI PATHANA (Pb), Dec 12: Dismissing reports of any bickering or dissension among his party workers, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asserted that the Akali Dal and the SAD-BJP tie-up were absolutely united and charged AAP and Congress with making such “baseless” claims to “destabilise the alliance”.
His remarks came following reports of bickering and dissension among SAD workers and leader in the wake of swapping of candidates from one seat to another for the upcoming state Assembly polls.
“The party is fully united to give a crushing defeat to both Congress and AAP in the upcoming Assembly polls,” the 89-year old Badal said while addressing the media on the sidelines of Sangat Darshan programme in Bassi Pathana assembly segment here.
Asked about Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s allegation that there was an understanding between SAD and Congress for the election, the five-time Punjab CM sought to quell the charges as “totally baseless, erroneous and politically motivated”.
“It is unimaginable and unethical to have such understanding as both Akali Dal and Congress are poles apart ideologically,” Badal said.
“As fire and water cannot co-exist, how come Congress and Akalis can?” he quipped.
On a query regarding statewide agitation by Education Guarantee Scheme teachers over their demand for regularisation of jobs, the CM said he would welcome any initiative to have direct dialogue with any one aggrieved across the table to sort out such issues amicably.
He appealed to these teachers to “shun the path of agitation” and said his doors were ever open to resolve any such matter with positive approach.
On the SYL canal issue, he maintained that Punjab neither has spare water to share with anyone, “nor is there any need for the construction of Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal and nobody will be allowed to construct it in future”.
Not a single drop of water would be allowed to flow out of the state, he added.
Making a frontal attack on the Congress leadership for allegedly betraying Punjab and Punjabis to satiate their lust for power, Badal rebuked the party’s state unit chief Amarinder Singh “for trying to become a martyr by smearing blood on his little finger and showing lip sympathy with the people on the SYL issue”.
“Amarinder Singh is the prime conspirator along with the former Congress high Command and late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who performed the ground breaking ceremony of SYL at village Kapoori in Punjab way back in 1982. On the contrary, the Akali Dal from day one opposed the construction of SYL by launching state wide morchas,” he stated. (PTI)
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