Akalis sound battle horn for Dilli takht

It was virtually the launching of their respective poll campaigns by the ruling Akali Dal and the Congress. The Congress gave the slogan of defeating the communal combination represented by the Akali Dal and the BJP. The BJP leaders were conspicuous by their absence at the Akali stage where A B Vajpayee was being projected as future prime minister.

The Akali leaders were all praise for Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, though the issue of his contesting from Jalandhar was not touched upon. The Akali Dal has offered Jalandhar seat to Gujral.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal portrayed the Congress as party of oppressors, saying that the “anti-people party” would be given a crushing defeat by the Akali Dal-BJP combine.

Badal expressed the hope of winning all the 14 seats – 13 in Punjab and the lone Chandigarh seat. He said Chandigarh was virtually part of Punjab and “We would get it”. He said all the problems would be solved with the Akali Dal-BJP in power at the Centre.

He went to the extent of saying that former chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala, contesting from Sangrur, would occupy number two position in a future Vajpayee government.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Gurcharan Singh Tohra said the Congress had not only done the maximum damage to Punjab but had also betrayed Gujral from whom the state had benefited the most.

Tohra also referred to the offering the Gurdaspur seat to Vajpayee by Badal. He was critical of the BSP-Congress pact in Punjab. He was the only senior leader who raised the slogans of Akali Dal zindabad and Bharatiya Janata Party zindabad.

Earlier, it was Finance Minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh who set the tone by giving a call to the people to march to Delhi and defeat the Congress, holding them responsible for damaging the country and encouraging terrorism in several states including Punjab and Kashmir.

Others who spoke included Agriculture Minister Gurdev Singh Badal, School Education Minister Tota Singh and Science and Technology Minister Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, besides S S Barnala and senior party leader Jagdev Singh Talwandi.

On the other hand, the Akali Dal-Amritsar (AD-A), which organised a separate political conference, called for Akali unity to put an end to dependence of SAD led by Parkash Singh Badal on the BJP which it termed as the other side of the coin represented by the Congress.

Cong campaign begins on oust SAD’ note

The Congress in Punjab today virtually launched its campaign with a call for throwing out the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance which it dubbed as unprincipled, communal, corrupt and anti-people. Top state-level leaders flayed the alleged repressive policies of the state government aimed at silencing the voice of the opposition.

Addressing the well-attended meet in the Mini Secretariat Complex on the occasion of Shahidi Jor Mela, PCC chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal termed the government as direction-less since it did not know whether to side with the Janata Dal or its enemy BJP as it had offered one Lok Sabha seat each to top leaders of both the parties. She felt these offers to outsiders showed bankruptcy of local talent of SAD to win these seats. She said the Congress would oppose Gujral if he contested from Punjab.

She ridiculed the euphoria over waiver of special term loan by the Centre since only two installments had been waived.

Paying rich tributes to Guru Gobind Singh and his sons who laid down their lives fighting Mughal oppression, she alleged that the Badal government appeared to be toeing the line of the latter since the administration had tried to scuttle today’s Congress rally under political pressure.