SAD says it will contest Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll on plank of 'peace'

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Saturday said it will contest the Jalandhar parliamentary bypoll on the plank of ''peace and communal harmony.'' The meeting of the party's core committee, held under the chairmanship of party president Sukhbir Singh Badal, also unanimously authorised him to select the party candidate for the Jalandhar bypoll.

It was also announced that a SAD-BSP coordination committee meeting would also be held soon in this regard, said a party release. Polling for the Jalandhar parliamentary seat will take place on May 10 while the counting will be held on May 13. The Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll was necessitated following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary (76) in January.

He died after he suffered a cardiac arrest during the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jalandhar's Phillaur.

The core committee noted that efforts were afoot to ''spoil'' the peace of Punjab and that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had become party to ''the conspiracy to destabilise the state''.

Chief minister Bhagwant Mann was solely responsible for the current state of affairs,'' said the committee. It also condemned him for ''insulting'' the Akal Takht Jathedar and ''gagging'' the voice of the media, intelligentsia and artists,'' the party alleged. Notably, CM Mann had Tuesday hit out at Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh for ''provoking'' people through an ultimatum to the AAP government to release all Sikh youths who were held during the police crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his aides.

Hitting back, the Jathedar had said he had the right and duty to speak about ''innocent'' Sikh youths.

SAD chief Badal said the SAD was ready to make any sacrifice necessary to ensure communal harmony in the state.

He also said the party would continue to seek justice for all innocent Sikh youth who had been arrested on trivial charges by the AAP government and demanded all innocents be freed immediately. The committee also took serious note of alleged ''discrimination'' being done to scheduled castes and weaker sections of the population by the AAP government.

It alleged that it was condemnable that all social welfare schemes were in the ''doldrums''.

Stating that it would take the AAP government's record on social welfare benefits to the people in the Jalandhar bypoll, the committee noted that the 'atta-dal' scheme and old age pension scheme were being implemented only partially even as all benefits under the 'Shagun' scheme had been stopped.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)