Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today lambasted Sudhar lehar leaders for campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana elections and said Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra had proved that the Sudhar Lehar was taking orders from Nagpur by campaigning for the BJP in Jammu.
Addressing a press conference here, senior SAD leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal said that Prof. Chandumajra not only sought votes for a BJP candidate but also promised voters that he would take up the case of making the BJP leader a minister in case he won the elections.
“All this proved that the Sudhar lehar is nothing by a product of the RSS and BJP. It is clear that the Sudhar Lehar has been formed by the BJP on the pattern of similar factions formed in Maharashtra and elsewhere by breaking regional parties”.Mr Maheshinder Grewal said more than six of the prominent leaders of the Sudhar lehar were now directly working for RSS and BJP.
He said that Prof. Chandumajra and Gaganjit Barnala were in Jammu yesterday for campaigning for the BJP candidate. “The Rakhra brothers have already made their bonding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi public while the daughter in law of S. Sikander Singh Maluka was the official BJP candidate from Bathinda in recently held Parliamentary elections”.
He said Bibi Jagir Kaur had contested the elections for the post of president of the SGPC last year with the backing of BJP leader Iqbal Singh Lalpura.When questioned about Gurpartap Singh Wadala’s claim that Chandumajra’s campaign for the BJP was a personal visit, Mr Grewal said that political persons have no personal lives while working politically.
“Prof. Chandumajra and Gaganjit Barnala sought votes for the BJP candidate, addressed the media with then BJP symbol behind them and openly talked about making the BJP candidate a minister in case he won the election”. Speaking on another issue, the SAD leader condemned the Aam Aadmi Party government for misusing the Central grant under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
He said said the Punjab and Haryana High Court had pulled up the Punjab government for misusing funds meant to be given to private hospitals for treatment of poor and needy for advertising and renovations at official bungalows of Ministers and officers. He said now the high court had directed the government to file details of misuse of public funds.
Mr Grewal also said more than one and a half year had lapsed after March 2023 when the term of the general house of the Municipal Corporation Ludhiana had been completed but the government had failed to conduct elections to give people their right to elect their own representatives to run local bodies.
Talking about Panchayat elections, Mr Grewal said the elections were being held during paddy harvesting to ensure that a minimum number of people voted. “Farmers are busy in harvesting and labour and traders are busy in the mandis. The government is doing this to ensure there is no effective opposition to AAP candidates”.
He also demanded that timing of voting should be increased from 8.00 AM to 4.00 PM to 7.00 AM to 7.00 PM so that a maximum number of voters could participate in the elections.