SAD conference at Maghi Mela to mark beginning of AAP govt’s countdown: Badal

Sukhbir Singh Sukhbir said the SAD conference at the Maghi Mela would witness support for the Akali Dal outpouring, and called upon his party workers to do their best to make the conference a grand success. (File photo)

Criticising Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over “total collapse” of the law and order situation in Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Tuesday that the political conference of the SAD at the upcoming Maghi Mela in Muktsar on January 14 would mark the beginning of the countdown of the Aam Aadmi Party government in the state.

Presiding over meetings with party workers from Muktsar, Balluana, Fazilka, Abohar, Jalalabad, Sahnewal and Kotkapura about the annual Maghi conference at Badal village, Sukhbir said, “Punjabis are fed up with lawlessness in the state under the AAP rule. They want an end to this era of extortion and goonda raj. They are also looking for a regional alternative. I assure them that gangsters will be eradicated from Punjab immediately after the formation of the SAD government.”

Sukhbir said the SAD conference at the Maghi Mela would witness support for the Akali Dal outpouring, and called upon his party workers to do their best to make the conference a grand success. “The conference will set the tone for the SAD’s success in the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections.”

Badal accused the chief minister of being busy in “divisive and vendetta politics” and “giving a free hand to the Delhi gang of the AAP to loot Punjab in the manner the East India company had done”.

“Punjab and Punjabis are suffering on multiple fronts, be it law and order, farmer crisis, unemployment and stoppage of social welfare benefits. Even as the state is on the verge of bankruptcy, the chief minister is spending thousands of crores on his publicity.”

The SAD chief said in the past few days, sensational killings made it clear that “no one is safe in the state”. “On Tuesday, masked men opened fire at a shop in Ludhiana after making ransom calls to its owner. On January 2, a woman was gunned down in a targeted attack at her home in Kapurthala. On January 3, a panchayat member was shot dead in Moga. On January 4, a sarpanch was killed at a wedding function in Amritsar, and on January 5, a former kabaddi player was killed in Jagraon.”

Sukhbir said all these incidents indicated that the law and order situation in Punjab was no longer under the control of the AAP government, and “Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann does not deserve to stay in office for even one more day.”