PM files papers on quot;Akali platformquot;

JALANDHAR/NEW DELHI, January 22: Prime Minister I K Gujral today filed his nomination as Janata Dal candidate for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha se...

JALANDHAR/NEW DELHI, January 22: Prime Minister I K Gujral today filed his nomination as Janata Dal candidate for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat in Punjab in presence of Akali leader and state Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farookh Abdullah, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Madhu Dandavate and city mayor and BJP leader Suresh Sehgal among others. And almost on the cue, United Front partner Samajwadi Party registered its protest against Gujral sharing the dais with Akalis and BJP.

quot;We are utterly disappointed over this development,quot; SP general secretary Amar Singh told a press conference in New Delhi. quot;Our objection is the same that party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had expressed a few days back,quot; Singh said and wondered how Gujral, being the prime ministerial candidate of UF, had shared the platform with Akali Dal. Samajwadi Party will oppose tooth and nail anybody hobnobbing with communal forces, Singh said. SP chief Yadav had declared that he would not campaign for Gujral at Jalandhar if he shared the platform with Akali Dal.

In Jalandhar, the Prime Minister defended sharing stage with the ruling Akalis at the Nehru Garden rally, saying quot;I have come to contest election at the invitation of Punjabis and not Akalis alonequot;. He claimed that he enjoyed the support of most political parties. quot;Barring one party Congress, all others, whether belonging to the Left or the Right, have embraced me,quot; he said.

BJP8217;s Sehgal, who briefly sat on the dais with the Prime Minister, later said that he was there in his official capacity as the city mayor and not as a representative of the BJP. When confronted by mediapersons after he emerged from the office of the returning officer, the mayor said that had he been asked to address the election rally of Gujral, he would have supported him as the mayor and not not as a BJP leader.

Union Welfare Minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who did not share the stage with the Punjab Chief Minister, said he did not regard the ruling Akali party as quot;political untouchable.quot; He declined to answer when asked if he would share the dais with Akali Dal Badal leaders during campaigning for the Prime Minister.

Gujral addressed a rally which was mainly attended by people mobilised by the ruling Akali party at Nehru Garden. Later, he addressed workers mobilised by the CPI, CPI-M, the Janata Dal and the Punjabi Bhalai Manch of Ramoowalia on the lawns of Deshbhagat Yadgar Hall.

Gujral, who sounded soft on the Congress, his principal opponent in at the Nehru Garden rally, however, queered the pitch at Desh Bhagat Yadgar hall by blaming the party for pulling down his government on the issue from which, he said, they were shying away now. Without naming the Congress and the Jain Commission interim report which indicted the DMK, the prime minister, at both the rallies, asked why those who had been demanding the ouster of DMK ministers from his government were now not making it an election issue. He wanted to know what the Congress did for Punjab in its recent five-year-rule at the Centre when it had seven ministers from the state at one time or other.