Chandumajra predicts more defections

Speaking to ENS, Chandumajra asserted that their breakaway faction was the 8220;real8221; Akali Dal to which more leaders from the Badal camp would defect. 8220;The legislators are only giving a long rope to Badal to let him prove his mettle in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.8221;

Chandumajra termed Badal an 8220;expelled8221; Akali Dal president and said: 8220;He has lost all right to expel anyone from the party8230; The conscience of the remaining legislators will not allow them to work under Badal and they will certainly throw their weight behind Tohra.8221;

He accused Badal of systematically victimising Tohra loyalists and lamented that the grant for the protection of Ghaggar river in his constituency was being delayed. 8220;By doing so Badal is trying to discredit me in Patiala constituency,8221; he said.

Asked if former Akal Takht Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh will contest elections on the Akali Dal Tohra ticket in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, Chandumajra said, 8220;For a towering religious leader like Ranjit Singh, a Lok Sabha seat is a small thing.8221;

He said the working committee of their faction would be constituted in a day or two. He expressed the desire to contest the elections and said that the question of his filing the nomination would be decided by the proposed working committee.

Chandumajra held Badal responsible for the row over the formation of the Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and said Badal had failed to voice his concern with the Pakistan authorities. The Chief Minister had come back with the lambs that Nawaz Sharif had presented to him but had ignored the issue that concerns Sikhs the most, he said. Chandumajra made it clear that their faction would be a constituent of the proposed third front in Punjab. The front would consist of all anti-Congress and anti-SAD-BJP forces, he said.