Sukhbir, Amarinder trade charges against each other

Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal claimed that the Congress will face its worst-ever defeat in tomorrow’s assembly polls and it will mark the end of the political career of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. In a statement on the eve of polling, Badal said that Amarinder had already announced his retirement plans. “We will give him a royal fair well,” said the Punjab deputy Chief Minister. Badal said that the SAD-BJP alliance is set to return to power with greatly improved figure to serve the people of Punjab for another five years. Badal said that his party and the alliance partner are fully geared to storm their way back to government and change the 64-year-old history of an incumbent not returning to power. [caption id=“attachment_196945” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=" Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal claimed that the Congress will face its worst-ever defeat in tomorrow’s assembly polls and it will mark the end of the political career of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. AFP"]  [/caption] “We have changed history already. Never in the past did people ever think just 12 hours before the elections is to start that those in government will come back. This time even our critics are depicting a close fight. That by itself is proof that history has already been changed,” he said. The visibility of development in Punjab over the past five years has been so strong that we are sure that people will not even listen to outdated slogans of the opposition, he said. Meanwhile, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Amarinder appealed to the voters to exercise their franchise cautiously to ensure that the state got a good and clean government which is not corrupt and which does not resort to vendetta. He questioned the claims of the Akali-BJP government about the development in the state, saying had it really been so, the state would not have added seven lakh more families living below poverty line and would not have a cumulative debt of Rs 1.72 lakh crores. “Yes, the Badal family and their close relatives have really made immense progress themselves by multiplying their wealth, constructing two seven star luxury hotels in Gurgaon, setting up an airline company, and launching television channels,” Amarinder alleged. He asked the people to compare the performance of the Akali-BJP government during 2007 to 2012 with that of the Congress between 2002 and 207. “Think before you vote,” he said, adding, “ask yourself whether any of the promises made by the Akali-BJP alliance has been kept.” Meanwhile, Amarinder asked some questions to Parkash Singh Badal, saying people of Punjab wanted to know the answers since he was seeking a fifth term as Chief Minister. He demanded Badal’s reply on questions ranging from his wealth to dual constitution of his party to his claims about development of the state. Why SAD has two constitutions – one for the SGPC elections where it claims itself to be a panthic party, and another for parliamentary and assembly elections in which it claims to be a secular party, the Congress leader asked. He also asked Badal as to why did he “burn the copies of the Constitution of India in New Delhi in May 1984 and whether he had any regrets about that”. PTI